Trouble Island
by garfieldodie
Summary: In the final movie, Calvin and Hobbes are faced with an old foe and must find a way to get away from their campsite to survive. But Mom and Dad are apparently up to no good, as well as a whacko doctor... COMPLETE!
1. VOOM! Goes the Whatever It Is

Summer time can be summed up in three letters: F, U, and N. However, that isn't always the case. Sometimes summer is nothing but trouble, and for our two heroes, Calvin and Hobbes, that's all summer had been for them. They'd been fighting evil for the past couple of months. Summer was almost over, and they were ready for some relaxation.

"I can't believe it's almost August already!" Calvin groaned one afternoon.

"Well, time flies when you're battling evil," Hobbes sighed.

"Summer is slipping through our fingers like grains of sand!" Calvin went on. "We've almost got none left! We're either on an adventure or we're recovering from one! Do you know how annoying that is? It won't be long before I enter the terror known as second grade. We need to have some more fun before September gets here. Come on! Let's hightail it!"

"Since when is fun supposed to be so much hard work?" Hobbes asked.

"It _has_ to be! You can't have fun if you don't take it seriously." He checked his watch. "Oh, no! It's a half hour later than it was thirty minutes ago! Come on! We need to get fun with it!"

"How?"

"We'll come up with something!"

"But we've already played Calvinball, bombed Susie and eaten heart-stopping cereal. What else are we supposed to do?"

Calvin looked around and saw a rain puddle.

"Quick! Let's go swimming!"

He ran as fast as he could for the puddle. He immediately took a dive.

Hobbes bent over and looked down at him, as he floated there in the puddle.

"Um, Calvin?"

No response. Calvin was in his own little world, but there was nothing little about it.

Calvin looked around, and he saw several fish swimming around that he'd never seen before. He saw the wreck of an old naval sub, and electric eels swiveling in and out of it. There was little krill swimming past his face.

"Diving explorer Rick Wilson explores the murky depths of the Rain Puddle Ocean, an uncharted ocean near Florida. The old wreck of the Fifteen Shell Submarine sits silently in the hold near the bottom on the ocean floor. It is only five feet away from the pitch-black cave on the floor."

Suddenly, something moved on the old wreck.

"All at once, a hatch door falls off and a giant shark comes swimming rapidly up towards Rick. How will he escape? What will—?"

"CALVIN!" a voice shouted.

Calvin's head shot up and he saw a confused Hobbes looking down at him.

"If you're not careful, you're going to drown yourself."

Calvin looked back down and saw the ocean was gone and now he was looking at his reflection.

"We need some fun in here somehow," he said, shaking himself dry.

"Maybe tonight, you could join me for a night on the town," Hobbes suggested.

"You mean when you go down to the docks to get those fish heads?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun!"

"I dunno…," Calvin said uneasily. "As fun as it would be, I'm not a fish person. Besides, you're not exactly Mr. Sunshine the next day."

"CALVIN!" another voice shouted. Mom's voice.

"Uh oh," Calvin moaned.

"I'm out of here." Hobbes jumped into the brush and disappeared.

Mom stomped over. "Get in this house right now, young man. You are in huge trouble."

She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the house. It wasn't necessarily the dream home of the century.

"Calvin, look at this mess. It's terrible."

"I wouldn't say that. It's the best mess I've ever seen!" Calvin said.

"Just look at this house, young man. You managed to destroy my favorite plant, explore the contents of the wastebasket, get a whole box of cereal all over the floor and unwind an entire roll of toilet paper down the floor. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Calvin looked at the mess before him.

"I was in the zone," he concluded.

Calvin was instantly hurled into his room, and he landed on the desk, papers flying everywhere. The door was slammed shut.

"Ouch," Calvin muttered.

He jumped from the desk to the bed, and then he jumped out the window and slid down the gutter to where Hobbes was waiting for him.

"She didn't appreciate it?"

"Nope. I always figured she'd enjoy cleaning my messes."

"Some people."

"However, that is not important right now. We have a G.R.O.S.S. meeting right about now. Come on."

They ran to the backyard towards the treehouse.

Hobbes ran up the tree.

Calvin groaned. "Come on, let the rope ladder down."

"Password please."

"No way! Just let me up there this once, please?"

"Look, we play this game every day. Just say the password and be done with it. The sooner you say it, the sooner you get up here."

"You're just lucky that you don't need the ladder, or else maybe _I'd_ get to make the password."

"Feh! You wish. Say it. Now."

Calvin slapped his forehead. You looked all around to make sure no one was watching.

"Tigers are neat. Tigers are fierce. Tigers have claws and teeth that can pierce. Tigers are nimble. Tigers are quick. Who cares about Jack and his candlestick? Tigers run fast. Tigers run swift. A tiger's great speed is a natural gift. Tigers are smart. Tigers have wit. Tigers can get down and jiggy wit' it."

"Good enough."

Hobbes let the ladder roll down.

"Thank you. I feel like an idiot."

Calvin started to climb up.

"Well, your squeaky voice kind of ruined it, so I give it eight stars."

"Why eight?"

"Well, you lost another point for not doing the dance."

"It was humiliating enough as it was."

They immediately put on their newspaper hats and began.

"Okay, this meeting of the Get Rid of Slimy girlS club will now come to order, Dictator-for-Life Calvin residing."

"Hear, hear!" added Hobbes.

"First order of business: Hobbes? Attendance report?"

"All present and accounted for," Hobbes said, saluting.

"Excellent! Now Secretary Hobbes will review the minutes."

"It's 6:32."

"Thank you. Now Secretary Hobbes will review the minutes of the previous meeting."

"Thank you."

Hobbes pulled out a notepad.

"10:30: Meeting called to order. 10:31: Debated so-called 'editorial slant' of minutes. Much drivel and uproar from Dictator-for-Life."

"Excuse me?" Calvin interrupted.

"10:32: President and First Tiger offers rational solution, but Dictator-of-Life takes unnecessary exemption"

"_RATIONAL SOLUTION_?" Calvin shouted. "You told me to go jump in a lake!"

"10:33: Blows exchanged. Dictator-for-Life accepts retribution."

"HA! I beat you justly! These minutes are nothing but lies!"

"Call me a fraud, will you?"

"By golly, I'll call you worse than _that_!"

Calvin jumped Hobbes and they tumbled down to the ground. They rolled around on the ground, biting and punching.

"Chowderhead!"

"Moron!"

"Tyrant!"

"Fleabag!"

They finally smashed into wall of the house.

"_Pant. Pant. _Truce?" Hobbes coughed.

"_Pant._ Truce. _Wheeze._"

Dusting themselves off, they got up and got back into the tree house.

"Well, another prolific gathering," Calvin sighed. "What a grand club."

"Now what do we do?"

"We move on to discussing our objectives for today."

"What's that?"

"To annoy our enemy nonstop."

"Sounds risky."

"Indeed. Today, we take it to the next level."

"How so?"

"Let's just say it'll involve helmets."

"Huh boy."

"No, no, I'm serious. I've got the plans written up right here."

Calvin pulled a bent and tattered piece of paper from his pocket.

"Just trust me on this."

Hobbes looked the plans over. His eyes went wide.

"Impressive, I must say."

"Thanks. It came to me in my dream last night."

"It's nice, but where are we going to get a pound of piranha?"

"Well—"

Calvin was interrupted by a low rumbling sound.

"Do you hear what I hear?" he asked.

"No, what?"

The rumble grew louder. The treehouse began to shake.

"That. What is that?"

"I'm not sure. It sounds like an airplane."

Just then, something big, shiny and loud flew overhead! The tree practically was bent over. Calvin and Hobbes lost their newspaper hats.

"WHOA!" Calvin shouted.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" shouted Hobbes.

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"MAN, WAS IT EVER FAST!"

"YEAH, I CAN BARELY SEE IT NOW!"

"I THINK I LOST MY HAT!"

"ME TOO!"

"WHAT SHOULD WE DO?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"HEY, WHY ARE WE YELLING?"

"BECAUSE, WE—" Calvin paused to think about this, and in normal tone he said, "I dunno."

They looked around. They saw that a crowd had just gathered outside, looking around.

"Let's go check it out," Calvin said.

They climbed down and looked around.

"Look, everyone, calm down!" Dad was shouting. "It was probably just a low-flying airplane! See, _this _is why people should ride their bikes more often, so that these things won't happen. We all should do that more often."

Everyone looked at him for a minute as if he was some strange life-form, and some people actually were thinking it.

Calvin rolled his eyes. "Thanks for that, Dad. We'll log that away."

"That couldn't have been an airplane," said a neighbor. "It was way too loud to be an airplane. Airplanes don't make that kind of noise. It was more of a whining noise I heard."

"That's because you have a three year old kid," Calvin piped up.

"No, I mean under all that rumbling, I heard a whining noise. No airplane makes a high-pitched noise. I should know. I'm a pilot. I know these things. I do!"

Calvin pondered. "What if it was a flying saucer?" he shouted, a bit louder than he had meant.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"No, I'm serious! What if aliens are coming? I was in my treehouse when it flew over! It looked kind of flat! It's a sign, people! Buggy-eyed aliens from the planet Qualsmire are coming to invade the planet!"

People started to leave.

"Calvin, you're embarrassing us," Mom whispered.

"No, _I'm_ embarrassing myself!"

He paused, rethinking his sentence.

"No, wait a minute…"

It was at that minute that Calvin realized that he was alone in the street with Hobbes and his parents.

"Come on, Calvin, it's time for dinner."

His parents walked inside, leaving Calvin and Hobbes standing there.

"Aliens, Calvin?" Hobbes asked.

"Hobbes, you know as well as I do that aliens exist. It's possible."

"I believe you, but I don't think that—"

"CALVIN, GET IN HERE!" Dad shouted.

Calvin sighed and followed his parents.


	2. Psychiatric Unhelp

Wealthy Philanthropist, J. Worthington III was found face down in his tomato soup. Was it natural causes? Or was it because he was about to write J. Worthington IV out of his will?

"Calvin!"

Calvin poked his head out from the tomato soup he was in.

"So much for that one food that Calvin can't play with," Mom sighed.

Calvin rolled his eyes. No one appreciates imagination anymore.

"You're going to sit here until you finish your soup," Dad ordered.

They put their bowls in the sink and left.

Calvin immediately dove down into the soup.

It was then that Hobbes entered the house with a camera around his neck.

"I'm back from bird watching, to anyone who cares," Hobbes called.

He found Calvin face down in his soup.

"Did you write J. Worthington IV out of your will?" he asked.

_Calvin, the world famous tomato soup diver, scours the murky depths in search of the elusive tomato guppy_, Calvin thought.

He popped up and saw Hobbes. He grabbed the camera.

"QUICK! GIMME THAT CAMERA!"

He yanked the camera down into the soup, pulling Hobbes down and smacking his face into the table.

_For the first time in history the spawning habits of the tomato guppy are captured on film_.

Hobbes yanked himself up, also yanking up the camera, which smacked Calvin in his eye.

"We must do something about you," Hobbes sighed, rubbing his nose.

"Whatever," Calvin said. "Would you like some tomato soup?"

"You didn't open your mouth down there, did you?"

"No."

"Okay."

Hobbes sat down in the chair and started to eat the soup while Calvin got up to the refrigerator.

"Hmm, nice soup," Hobbes said. "But then again, I wouldn't eat it if it were mean."

"Whatever. I'm helping myself to some pie."

He cut himself a piece and opened his mouth.

"CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN! THERE'S A BLACK HOLE AHEAD! WE CAN'T TURN AROUND! THE GRAVITATIONAL PULL IS TOO GREAT! ARRRRRRGH!"

He ate the pie.

"They just went where no man has gone before," Calvin said, swallowing.

Hobbes slurped down the soup and then grabbed some pie.

"I still can't believe no one agrees with me. That thing could've been anything! Even a space ship! I'll bet it was! Aliens are invading and we're all doomed."

"Maybe it was a government plane."

"Oh, come on. You've _got_ to believe me a _little_ bit."

"Calvin, even_ you_ don't know if you believe you."

"I know, but you have to at least have faith in my theory."

"I don't see why. You usually think up a lot of crazy things that only turn out to be untrue."

"Like what?"

"Well, you did once think your parents were aliens."

"Read my school poem. You'll get what I mean. Besides, we're not having any fun! We're practically just sitting around. We just throw water balloons everyone we know. I can't believe how stupid this summer vacation has gotten. We need more fun to meet the status quo."

"Calvin, get in here!" Dad shouted.

Calvin groaned and walked into the living room.

"What?" he asked.

"Calvin, we need to talk about you about you and your active imagination."

"Excuse me?"

"We're concerned about your recent behavior this summer," Mom said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, over the summer, you've been talking about some crazy things, and we're worried that you have a mental problem. You might have a problem with your brain."

Calvin was steamed. "Why, I've never been so insulted in all my life! I'm a genius! It's _your_ brains that have the problem!"

"We're signing you up for psychiatric help," Dad continued, ignoring him. "You're going to a pshcyatrist the day before we leave for our camping trip."

"Meaning tomorrow," added Mom.

"Oh, you all think I'm crazy!" Calvin shouted. "I don't believe this. You all are just plain ignorant."

"Go to your room. We'll talk more tomorrow."

"Pah!" Calvin snorted. "I was heading there anyway. Come on, Hobbes."

He walked upstairs.

Mom rolled her eyes, and they resumed reading.

Hobbes walked past them and went upstairs.

"Going to a shrink tomorrow, huh? You poor man."

"This is going to be worse than going to the doctor's office! I can't believe Mom and Dad would do this to me!"

"Well, they just don't understand the concept of aliens. Maybe you just shouldn't get crazy about aliens and such. People who don't work with the government just don't believe."

Calvin grunted and dove under the covers for bed. Hobbes joined him.

"I must make a note to hate tomorrow."

* * *

Early the next morning, Calvin was sitting angrily in the backseat of the car. Hobbes was sitting next to him, not saying a word, fearing he'd trigger Calvin off again. Already today, by just saying good morning to him, Calvin had yelled something that involved a trash compacter, a pair of scissors and the number two.

"Calvin, I just want you to know that we're doing this for your own good," Dad said.

"We don't want you to have a deficient mind," Mom added.

Calvin didn't reply. He was in the so-called deficient mind.

_Intrepid space-explorer, Spaceman Spiff, is being taken to a Plaintiffian Brain-Tap Industry to have his brain tapped upon. His mind races furiously to figure out how to elude his capturers, who are Plaintiffians, by the way. Our hero examines the spaceship._

Calvin quickly started to roll down his window. He took an iron pole that was conveniently in his seat, and he slowly started to slip it out the window.

_Our hero takes an old iron piece and attempts to jam it under his ship's hover mechanism to break it off._

Calvin was trying to break a hubcap off of the wheel.

Hobbes simply covered his head, hoping this would end soon.

_Spiff manages to feel onto the mechanism, and starts to pry with all his might._

It was at that moment that Dad looked into the rearview mirror. "HOLY COW, CAVLIN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

_Zounds! The Plaintiffians have spotted him! Spiff, ignoring the fact that he's several miles above the planet, makes a daring jump._

Calvin dropped the iron pole, which clanged against the car, scratching the paint, and Calvin climbed out the window and landed in the ditch. He didn't care if Hobbes followed him. He just wanted to get far away from there. He quickly scrambled up the slope above the ditch.

The car screeched to a halt. Mom quickly jumped out.

"CALVIN! GET BACK HERE!"

_With one last ditch-effort, pardon the pun, our hero takes out his blaster and fires repeatedly at the aliens._

Calvin picked up trash that had been littered and hurled it at her.

"Get back here!" Mom shouted.

Finally, Mom managed to grab Calvin, and she jammed him into the seat and put the seatbelt on hard.

"You're grounded," Dad said angrily. "When we get to the campsite, you can't leave the tent."

"YAY!" Calvin cheered.

Dad groaned and continued on.

* * *

Once in the building, Calvin and Hobbes followed his parents into a waiting room.

While Mom and Dad signed him in, Calvin's mind started to wander.

_Recaptured by the Plaintiffians, Spaceman Spiff finds himself trapped in the alien prison, awaiting the brain tapper. With the exception of his sidekick, Spaceman Mort, the room is filled with ugly, smelly aliens and their space prisoners. _

A weird-looking man stepped out from his office.

"I'm ready to see Calvin," he said to Mom and Dad.

Calvin looked up and saw the man. He had round glasses, a small mustache, slicked back black hair and was wearing a tailored suit.

_It appears that Spiff won't have time to escape. Instead, he'll have to go into battle with this tough alien._

Hobbes noticed that look on Calvin's face, and before he could stop him, Calvin jumped up and leaped onto the man's head!

"Surrender, alien menace! Either that, or eat subatomic blasts!" He held up his dart gun. "I'd prefer it if you chose the blasting one. It's more entertaining."

Everyone ignored him.

"CALVIN!" Mom shouted.

"No, no. It's all right," said the pshcyatrist, waving his hand. "All of my patients are prone to reacting like this when they first come to see me. I'm used to it."

It was then that Calvin finally realized where he was. Everything went from scary dungeon to waiting room.

"Why is your hair wet?" he asked. "Did the sprinklers go off in there or something?"

"Come with me, Calvin. I am Dr. Griffin."

Calvin got off of Dr. Griffin's head and went to get Hobbes, but Dr. Griffin stopped him.

"This is just for you, Calvin. Your tiger can wait here. I'll test him another day."

"Oh, okay," Calvin said. "Don't worry, Hobbes. I'll tell you all about it when I get back."

He walked in with Dr. Griffin right behind him.

Calvin entered Dr. Griffin's office. He was impressed. There was the classic couch with the chair next to it. There were several things placed around them, including a desk with a flat screen computer, several intergalactic paintings and a dead plant in the corner.

"Nice pad," Calvin commented.

"Please, have a seat on the couch," Dr. Griffin said, motioning toward the couch.

Calvin hopped onto the couch.

"Now then, let's begin with the problem."

"What problem?" Calvin asked.

"Your parents tell me that something may be mentally wrong with you."

"What do you mean, mentally?"

"Mental means that—"

"I _know_ what mental means," Calvin said angrily. "I mean, what do you mean by problem?"

"Well, according to your parents, your brain might have a problem. They claim that you think stuffed animals are alive, you sometimes think you're a space explorer, you constantly cause certain problems due to your imagination…"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Calvin interrupted. "What do you mean by stuffed animals? I don't even _own_ a stuffed animal."

"What about that tiger I saw in the waiting room?"

"Who, Hobbes? He's my best friend!"

"But he's a stuffed animal."

"Oh, well, that's a common misapprehension. You see, Mom and Dad call him that because when I caught Hobbes, Dad told me to stuff him."

Dr. Griffin rolled his eyes and decided to skip ahead.

"Alrighty, let's try a simple exercise: I want you to close your eyes."

Calvin shut his eyes.

"Now tell me what you see?"

"I see a mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex stomping madly through the prehistoric landscape," Calvin replied. "He sees a Diplodocus, named after the fact that they are dippy. He goes in for the kill. He pounces and—"

"Okay, okay. That's enough," Dr. Griffin said quickly.

Calvin opened his eyes. "Hey, come on! I was just getting to the good part!"

"I've got all the data I need, thank you."

Calvin found it odd that he'd said 'data' rather than 'information', but decided they meant the same thing.

"Now then, we need try an inkblot exercise," Dr. Griffin went on.

Calvin sat up on the couch and looked at some pictures that were being held up.

"What do you see in these pictures?" he asked.

"I see Stupendous Man flying around the Earth in his mask and cape."

The next picture.

"I see crack-investigative detective, Tracer Bullet, firing his .48 at the criminal mastermind."

Flip.

"I see the intrepid Spaceman Spiff fighting off the Zogworgs in his battle-cruiser."

Flip.

"I see that T Rex again."

Flip.

"I see a water balloon coming in contact with Susie Derkin's noggin!"

"Okay, that was strange," said Dr. Griffin, putting the pictures away. He wrote some stuff down in his notepad.

"What was strange about it?"

"Never mind. Let's move on."

He took a pack of something out of his pocket.

"I have some worded cards here. I want you to arrange them in any order you choose."

"Okay."

Calvin was handed the cards. He got down on his hands and knees and began to lay them out.

After ten minutes of work on the floor, he finally said, "I'm finished."

Dr. Griffin got up and started writing what Calvin had laid out.

"'The mighty Stupendous Man flew over the Earth and took a lens out over the planet, making the heat from the sun hotter than before, and frying the bad man right on the spot.'"

"My range of vocabulary is better than that, by the way," Calvin said, "but I was working with limited resources."

Dr. Griffin rolled his eyes.

"By the way, would you like me to continue on about the T Rex?"

"No. Get on the couch."

Calvin sighed and did so.

"Okay, I want you to wait here for a brief moment while I discuss something with your parents."

He got up and left.

Calvin looked around the room with great interest.

Once in the hallway where Mom and Dad were waiting, Dr. Griffin spoke to them.

"Well, I now fully understand what you meant by mental problem."

"Yes, you see, we're concerned that this is going to interfere with his life in second grade," Mom explained. "We need to try and wean him away from the tiger. We believe if we do that, the problem might go away, and then he'll do better in second grade."

"I see," said Dr. Griffin. "I may actually be able to get that done faster. We have a new system this week, and if we could set up an appointment later this week, we could…"

"Actually," Dad said, "we're going camping out in the lake downtown this week. Maybe next week?"

"I'm sorry, but the system will only last until Saturday. If you could just cancel a few days of your trip?"

"Hey, I already paid thirty dollars for renting the island out. I'm not going to spend another ten just to cancel a few days of it. We need to go tomorrow."

"I see. Well, I'll see what I can do with him now."

It was then that they heard a loud crash from inside the office.

They opened the door to find Calvin snarling and growling and running around the room, tearing things apart with his teeth.

"ROOAAAAARR!" Calvin shouted.

"CALVIN!" everyone shouted.

Calvin stopped and looked up.

"Oh…Mom and Dad……_HI_……How long have you…?"


	3. The Vacation Spot of Doom

Once they were at home again, Calvin and Hobbes entered their bedroom.

"What happened in there, other than the mass destruction?" Hobbes asked.

"Not much. It was kind of boring in there," Calvin replied. "All we did was hold up inkblots and made me make sentences. The couch was pretty comfy though. Tasty, too."

"You seriously need to stop doing that."

Dad poked his head through the door. "Calvin?" he said. "We need you to start packing. We've got an important day tomorrow!"

"Important day, Dad?"

"Camping trip tomorrow, Calvin," Dad reminded him. "We're going to leave first thing tomorrow."

He left them in the room.

"Oh, great," Calvin whined.

"All in favor of hiding, hide," Hobbes decided.

"Okay," Calvin said. "I'll turn on the radio to drown out any noises that may attract attention."

Calvin switched on the radio on the dresser and they instantly began work. Hobbes took the old jump rope from the closet and tied one end to the bedpost. However, the rope snapped and the rose bushes were totaled.

Next they tried the bed sheets, but they unraveled and they slid into the rose bushes.

Then they tried using the kite to fly down, but this only resulted in a close call with death.

Finally, on their fifteenth attempt to use a parachute, Hobbes asked a very vital question.

"Why are we trying so many different methods if each one of our attempts has gotten us outside?"

"Well, we need to find a method that is painless before the trip starts, and since we have a full day to do it, I say we experiment until we find a foolproof way to do it."

"That and we have nothing better to do with our time?"

"Isn't summer great?"

It was at that moment that the song on the radio stopped and a man with a high voice came on.

"We interrupt whatever you were listening to for this important report. Local residents have reported that they have spotted a strange craft flying near the Camp Site Island near the canoe rental. It is advised this campsite be avoided at all costs just in case."

Calvin and Hobbes instantly perked up and looked at each other.

"Well, I'll have to call the construction company and cancel that order of dynamite," Calvin decided. He paused. "Or _will_ I?"

"Wait a minute," Hobbes said. "Strange craft? What if it was that thing that flew over here yesterday?"

Calvin thought this over. "Good point. Maybe we should head over there on our own to check it out? I mean, although it's against my principles to go to places I hate, but this one might be worth it."

"Let's hit it."

Calvin dove into the closet and pulled a cardboard box. He turned the arrow to _AIRPLANE_, and the wings and propeller came out.

"Are you ever gonna get the peanut machine working?" asked Hobbes.

"Once the soda machine works, I can get started on that."

Calvin hopped into the machine with Hobbes right behind him. They put on their goggles and they soared for the island, the place everyone but Dad hates.

"Hey, I've discovered how we can get out in a harmless way!"

"Good, because I think all of our afternoon has been booked."

It was then that Calvin realized something.

"Hey, how do we even _get _to that place anyway?"

"I dunno."

It was at that instant that something roared over them. The box was knocked out of the sky and it crashed onto the sidewalk where Susie was playing.

"AAAH!" she shouted. "Calvin, what are you doing?"

"No time to explain, Susie," Calvin said. "Hobbes and I have to go catch that flying thing. It's not getting away this time!"

Susie eyed Calvin. "Calvin, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you had something to do with that flying thing."

Calvin was about to retort, but he suddenly had a thought. "Wait a gosh darn minute," he said quietly. "Maybe you're right! After all, I've met aliens before! Maybe they're back and they want a refund! That would be particularly difficult, seeing as how I'm sure Retro's not-so-secret lair is gone by now."

Susie rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You're so weird." She picked up Mr. Bun and walked back to her house.

"Poor Susie," Calvin sighed. "She seems to be confusing 'weird' with 'genius'."

"What do you mean genius?" asked Hobbes.

"Hey, who built the _Transmogrifier_/_Time Machine_/_Duplicator_/_Airplane_/_Drill_?"

"You and they've only gotten us into trouble."

"You're such a pessimist, you know that?"

Calvin hit the controls and took off in pursuit of the flying thing, which was now just a dot in the sky.

"The question is if it _is_ Galaxoid and Nebular, why are they here and what do they want?"

"That was three questions," Hobbes said. "Still, I feel that those questions shall be answered in due time."

The box with the two pals flew as fast as it could to catch up with the flying thing, but it was quickly disappearing from view.

Calvin pulled out a pair of binoculars.

"It's heading for the island, all right! We've got it now!"

"Just out of curiosity, what do we plan on doing when we catch up with that thing anyway?"

Calvin paused for a second. He hadn't thought of that yet.

"Maybe we could just not do anything but snoop. That's usually a good start."

"Just like in those old movies."

Calvin steered the box after the dot.

"We're catching up with it! We're nearly there! Hey, we're catching up faster than I thought we would!"

"CALVIN, STOP!"

Calvin lowered the binoculars and looked ahead. He slammed his foot down on the, er, brakes, and they did a quick stop.

They were right behind a giant UFO!

"Holy…," Hobbes said slowly, but he felt short of breath.

"Does this thing look familiar to you?" Calvin asked nervously.

It was then that they noticed that the whole thing started stop hovering and it was now headed straight for island that Calvin was due to be vacationing in!

"Oh, great!" Calvin moaned. "We're vacationing with a pair of aliens."

"Well, we know they're friendly aliens," Hobbes reminded him.

Of course, Hobbes was right. Galaxoid and Nebular were great friends of Calvin and Hobbes. Unfortunately, a certain someone was up to something, turning their alien friends into possible enemies…

* * *

It didn't take too long for Calvin and Hobbes to get into the spaceship. It basically took about an hour. Hey, that may seem long to you, but when you're trying to break into a spaceship, that is actually considered to be pretty short.

Calvin and Hobbes had to crawl through an air duct.

"Man, it smells like transistor fluids down here," Calvin groaned.

"Shh, I can hear voices," Hobbes hissed.

Calvin and Hobbes scurried quickly through the small crawlspace. They looked ahead and spotted someone they didn't recognize through a vent on the bottom.

"What is that?" Hobbes whispered.

"I can't tell," Calvin said. "The bars on the vent are in the way."

The voice that was heard was not recognizable.

"Is the machine ready?" the voice said.

"Yeah, it's set," said another unrecognizable voice.

"Okay, bring it out."

Calvin and Hobbes looked at each other.

Peering through the bars, they saw some human beings hauling out something covered by a tarp.

"What's that?" asked Calvin.

He found out soon enough.

The tarp was yanked away. Calvin and Hobbes nearly fell over.

What was under the tarp was a machine. It was square-shaped with a timer and helmet attached to it.

"Oh my gosh," Hobbes whispered. "Is that the Imaginator?"

"Imaginator 2.0.," Calvin gulped.

It was then that something on the machine clicked, and a bright shade of red burst out of a hidden compartment on it. A laser shot out and struck a painting, bursting it into flames.

"Whoops, my bad," a man said.

Calvin and Hobbes couldn't blink.

"I don't recall the Imaginator being able to do that," Hobbes said. "I think I see what's happening here."

"What?"

"Retro's back, and because of that, we're gonna die!"

"We can handle him," Calvin scoffed.

"With lasers?" Hobbes questioned.

Calvin gulped and looked back down.

The men were trying to put out the fire.

"We'll worry about that later. Let's go."

They scrambled around, not caring if they were heard or not. They crawled like there was no tomorrow, which there wasn't going to be if they didn't hurry.

They crawled out of the vent on the side of the ship and jumped into the box. Calvin turned it on and they blasted off for home.

* * *

Mom and Dad were in their bedroom packing for the trip when Calvin ran into the room and started jumping on their bed.

"MOM! DAD! MOM! DAD!" he shouted. "THERE'S A FLYING SAUCER HOVERING OVER THE CAMPSITE ISLAND PLACE AND THEY'VE GOT THIS GIANT LASER BEAM THINGY AND—"

"Calvin, what are you talking about?" Dad interrupted.

"Mad scientists have hijacked a spaceship and they've got it set up at our campsite, and we're gonna die, and it's all because of that nut, Retro, and he's probably brainwashed Galaxoid and Nebular into helping him get revenge on me, which is weird, because he could've done it in the last movie, but that's not important right now because if we go camping, we'll be blasted to smithereens, and that's why we can't go camping. The end."

Mom and Dad looked down at him.

"I don't know what he said," Mom said, "but I think that's reason enough to stay home this year."

"Not a chance," Dad said. "We're going camping! It's a one of man's ways of recommuning with nature. It's what the world was intended for."

"If we were intended to do that, God wouldn't have made Bill Gates," Calvin said. "Can't we just stay with Uncle Max this year? After all, he said we could visit him whenever we wanted! Come on! He's fun!"

"We'll do that next year," Dad said. "_This_ year, we're going to the greatest place on the planet."

"If there's no television, I'm suing for false advertising," Calvin said.

"You both need to learn that everything a man needs is provided by the wilderness. Man doesn't need much. Man was intended to just need bushes and trees, animals for companions, a beautiful sunset and some delicious spam."

"We have that here!" Calvin cried. "Why do you have to drag us off to our imminent doom?"

"Because we're distracted by certain luxuries like newspaper, television, work and such. We go camping because we need to unwind and relax. We need to learn and appreciate nature."

"If you wanna do that, just walk in the woods! It's practically a national state park."

Dad responded by throwing Calvin out of their room and into the hall.

"Now remember, you should pack only the essentials," he said, and he slammed the door.

Calvin rolled his eyes as he walked into his room.

Hobbes was on the bed, putting the box back into the closet.

"Well?"

"Pack essentials," Calvin ordered. "I say that packing essentials would include weaponry that will protect us."

"We'll need atomic bug spray then," Hobbes said.

"I was thinking laser spray, but that works too."


	4. TREASURE! GOLD! JEWELRY! Sure

The next day, Mom and Dad were waiting at the car for Calvin. They had filled it to capacity with all the stuff.

"Come on, Calvin!" Dad shouted. "We're going to be late!"

"We're on a deadline?" Mom asked.

"CALVIN!" Dad repeated.

Calvin looked out the window at Dad. He turned to Hobbes.

"Remember, Hobbes," he said. "All for one…"

"…and one for all," Hobbes finished.

They grabbed their bags.

"You packed everything we needed, right?" Hobbes asked.

"It's all set," Calvin replied.

They looked outside, pausing.

"Of course, we don't have to go out there right this second," Calvin suggested.

"Right, I mean, I just ate."

"CALVIN, GET OUT HERE!" Dad shouted.

Calvin and Hobbes slowly left the house.

Dad looked down at his son carrying a stuffed tiger.

"Calvin, I said only bring the essentials," he said.

"I did," Calvin said.

"Well, Hobbes isn't an essential."

"Of course he is!" Calvin said. "I need him to fight the boredom of this boring car ride."

"Calvin, as your father, I am ordering you to leave Hobbes here."

Calvin's eyes went wide. Did his dad just say that?

"WHAT!" he shouted. "But Hobbes is my best friend!"

"Well then, you need to pick your friends better. Now put him back in your room."

Calvin couldn't believe this was happening! Mom and Dad had always been a little tolerant about Hobbes, and now here they were trying to get rid of him!

"Calvin, listen to your father," Mom said.

"Why start now?" Calvin asked.

"Look, just leave Hobbes," Dad said. "I'm sure he'll have a good time without you."

Calvin glared at Hobbes. "He sure had better not."

"Take him back to the house," Dad ordered.

Calvin muttered something and carried Hobbes back to the house.

Once there, Hobbes said, "Well, have fun battling aliens and scientists."

He started to leave, but Calvin tossed his hypercube into the air, and it landed on Hobbes' head, open side first, and Hobbes was instantly sucked into it. Calvin quickly picked it up and jammed it into his backpack.

"Sorry, Hobbes, but it's my job to rebel against what Mom and Dad say."

Calvin quickly ran back to the car, pretending to be mad.

"Someday, you're going to thank me for this, Calvin," Dad said with a satisfied grin.

"Or kill you for this, whichever occurs first," Calvin replied, hiding a sly grin.

* * *

Once they were out on the road, Calvin was getting more and more bored. This was strange, seeing as how he was heading to an island with lasers, but without Hobbes sitting next to him, he was unable to plan properly.

"This is BOR-ING!" he shouted at last.

"It won't be boring once we get there," Dad said in a too-cheerful-for-his-own-good-voice. "You'll see. We'll hike and fish and refry some beans and swim! There's all sorts of things!"

"Sounds like a load of fun," Calvin said. "Such a shame it'll be ruined when the mad scientists and aliens get us!"

"Calvin, you're only proving us right when we say you have a problem," Mom said.

"Look, let's just go home. Aliens or not, we'll perish on that rock either way."

"You're such a spoil sport," Dad said. "Name all the bad things that possibly happen."

Calvin went to say something, but Dad stopped him.

"There, see? Nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, except for the poison ivy, dry spam, cold waters, lumpy sleeping bags, wild animals, dampness, blistering sun, blistered ankles, cuts and bruises, shortage of real food, endless rain, mosquitoes, malaria, hypothermia, pneumonia, your dumb character speeches, your dumb early-bird thing, gutting the fish, getting stuck on a boat with you yammering, the bad running distance from the tents to the canoe, the intolerable winds that occur at noon, your inability to make a campfire, actually eating what's in the duffel bag, losing half the luggage on the way home, the creepy guy at the canoe rental shack, the idiotic campfire songs, the no TV, and the fact that you can't camp to save your life, there should be no worries." He inhaled deeply.

Dad stomped on the brakes. "How would you like to walk home, pal?"

Calvin turned and hopped out of the car, running for his life.

Dad sighed and ran after him. "GET BACK HERE!"

* * *

After another hour of driving, they finally arrived at the campsite.

"Let's go, everyone!" Dad cheered.

No one moved.

"Come on, let's get going!"

Nothing.

"Otherwise we'll sit here all week with some fun discussions about tree frogs."

"Very well," Calvin said. "Why do they live in trees?"

"I think they're afraid to set foot on the ground," said Mom.

"Out now!" Dad hollered.

Mom and Calvin slowly got out of the car, gathering their things.

Dad approached the weird guy at the canoe rental. He basically looked like a freak. I can't make it any clearer than that.

"One canoe, for the full week," he said, handing him the money.

"You want some shovels for a couple bucks?" he asked.

"Why would we want shovels?" Dad asked.

"Well, don't ya know? You should. You're here every year."

"Why, what's out there?"

"Gold."

Calvin instantly was on his counter, his face pressed against the glass.

"GOLD?" he asked loudly. "Where?"

"Somewhere at your campsite."

Calvin cringed. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but let's go camping!"

"Whoa, hold on," Mom said. "There's no treasure."

"Ah, but there _is_! Some people who were out there last week say they found a gold coin. I've been out there myself, and I found _this_!"

He held up a gold necklace.

Calvin eyed it closely, and then he had the nerve to bite it.

"Holy smokes, it's _real_!"

"You bet your spiky hair it's real. So, that'll be two dollars for shovels."

"I'm not paying for shovels," Dad said firmly.

"You don't need to!" said Calvin. He slapped two bucks down on the counter. The guy handed him a shovel.

Calvin jumped down and ran. "Grab the canoe! We're goin' treasure hunting!"

Dad grabbed him by the collar. "Calvin, hold on there. There's no gold on that island."

"How would _you_ know?"

"I know for a fact. If any pirates were to bury a treasure, they wouldn't put it out there. It's a lake. It'd be an island out on the ocean."

"Maybe it was part of a roués! Maybe they did it to trick us all. Or maybe this whole place was underwater during pirate times, and they—"

"Calvin, trust me. There's no gold."

"Trust you? I trusted you to pick a good vacation spot, and look what happened! And I trusted you to accept Hobbes for being a tiger, and you told me to leave him at home!"

Mom bent down beside Calvin. "Calvin, you need to understand something about Hobbes. He's not exactly what you'd call 100tiger."

"Well, _DUH_!" Calvin said. "He's able to stand on two legs and he has opposable thumbs! Go figure!"

Dad slapped his forehead. "Look, let's not discuss this now. We have a camping trip to go on! Come on! Let's go!"

"Yeah! Let's go!" Calvin cheered.

Mom sighed.

Soon, they had loaded everything into the canoe.

All Calvin thought about the whole way _treasure, treasure, treasure_. He saw gold coins, necklaces, diamonds, jewels, money, moola, the green stuff, cabbage, and possibly a couple of credit cards.

"Paddle faster!" Calvin shouted. "We need to make it before the scientists find the treasure!"

"There are no scientists or aliens or gold out there," Dad said.

"You said that Mickey Mouse wasn't real, and there he was at DisneyLand."

"That one doesn't count."

Calvin looked down and saw his backpack was moving.

"Okay, okay, you can come out now."

He unzipped it, and he pulled out Hobbes.

"CALVIN!" Dad shouted.

"What?"

"I told you to leave Hobbes at home."

"What, and leave my best friend behind from the treasure hunt." He looked down at Hobbes. "Yes, treasure. The canoe freak said that there's one buried somewhere out on the island." Another pause. "I'll ask." He turned to Dad. "Dad, how much tuna would all that gold buy?"

"There's no gold," Dad said firmly. "Calvin, there are some things that you need to do without Hobbes."

"Why?"

"Well, friends aren't always there when you need them."

Calvin looked at Hobbes suspiciously. Then he eyed Dad.

"Dad, do you have a bad past?"

"Oh, you wouldn't believe it," said Mom.

"Calvin, this is serious. You need to move on beyond this tiger."

"Oh, you mean I should make friends with a lion, too? Well, that could work. Hobbes could use a sparring partner."

"No, I mean you need to make _real_ friends."

"But Hobbes is real."

"No, Hobbes is not real"

Calvin arched an eyebrow. This was getting confusing. If Hobbes wasn't real, what was he? He looked at Hobbes, who apparently wasn't listening. He was reading a comic book.

"Something is seriously wrong with you," Calvin decided. "If Hobbes isn't real, then what is he?"

"He's a—"

"Hello!" a voice interrupted.

Everyone looked up and saw…

"DR. GRIFFIN?" everyone shouted.

Indeed, the man with wet hair stepped forward.

"What are you doing here?" asked Mom.

Calvin immediately jumped from the canoe and ran onto his coat.

"He's with the aliens, I tells ya!" he shouted. "I knew we heard humans in that ship. Fess up, pal, or face dire consequences."

"Calvin, I assure you that I have no idea what you're talking about," he said calmly.

Calvin was about to relent, but something in Dr. Griffin's eyes made him suspicious. Even so, he got down from his chest.

_This guy was tough_, Calvin thought, _but I was ready to boil him hard. That's what we detectives do, you understand_.

"What are you doing here then?" Calvin asked in a tough voice.

"I'm thought I'd drop by," he said. "I'd like to speak with your parents."

"I likely story. What would care to talk to them about?"

"Certain, private matters."

_Normally, I wouldn't want to get involved in private matters, so I… Wait, what am I talking about? I'm a detective! It's my job to get involved in private matters. But before I could pry any further, I was called away to help with something._

"Calvin, we need your help with these duffel bags," Dad shouted. "They're not going to unload themselves."

"Whatever you say, Mac," Calvin said.

_Mac was okay. His priorities aren't very good. He talks to animals, which is okay to an extent, but when he starts to tell them that hibernating builds character, that kind of takes their joy out of the big winter sleep._

Calvin hoisted up the duffel bag, wanting to prod Dr. Griffin some more.

_Griffin is a rather shady character. He has his good points, but he isn't exactly who you'd call the most interesting guy in the world, if not most innocent. He's got some weird methods that he puts on his patients. I should know. I'm one of them._

After the duffel bag was ashore, Calvin whirled around and pointed at Griffin.

"He's evil! He's here to—"

"Calvin, shut up," Mom breathed.

"Actually, I would like to talk to you as soon as you get your camp set up," said Dr. Griffin. "I'll be in the woods at my own campsite."

"Sure," said Dad.

After Dr. Griffin left, Dad started to empty the bags.

"Is everyone ready to camp?" he asked.

"I'm ready to leave," Calvin shouted.


	5. A Diabolical Pill

By the time Dad had the campsite up, it was almost dusk. Calvin and Hobbes had gone into the woods as usual.

"Why did we go through here?" asked Hobbes. "What if we get blasted to smithereens by the laser?"

"That's why we need to get there do disable the laser and make our way to freedom. Besides, maybe we'll find more of that gold out here!"

"Yeah, that'll be fun! We'll be like pirates!"

"I'll be Yellow Head the Pirate Captain, and _you'll_ be my first mate, Fuzzy."

Hobbes looked down at Calvin. "Excuse me?"

"Come on! If we find the treasure, we'll give a quarter of it to the scientists and they'll finally leave."

"Even if they do leave, we'll still have to stay here for the rest of the week."

"Yeah, but at least we won't have to constantly look over our shoulders."

"Yes we would!"

"Well, at least we wouldn't have to worry about lasers, aliens and scientists."

"Are you kidding? They'd just take the gold and destroy us."

"Okay, good point." Then a thought occurred to him. "Say, Hobbes?"

"Yes?"

"What did Dad mean by 'you're not real'?"

Hobbes looked up. "What do you mean?"

"He said it in the canoe, but then Dr. Griffin cut him off before he could say what you really are."

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again, and possibly a few times after that: You have weird parents."

Calvin arched an eyebrow. "What happens when I'm not home and you're alone with them?"

"I'll admit that they never really speak to me, but I'm not too fazed by it."

"Really? If no one ever paid any attention to me, I'd go crazy."

"Well, when you're not noticed, you can get away with a lot. I've raided the cookie jar, doodled in your mom's checkbook, jumped on their bed, drinking juice straight from the carton…"

"Hey! Mom blamed _me_ for those things!" Calvin cried.

"Yeah, that's _another_ advantage! I'm never the prime suspect!"

"Why you…!"

Calvin jumped for Hobbes, but Hobbes laughed away.

"Hoo, hoo, huh, hoo!" he shouted.

The two of them ran off, Calvin shouting unkind things to Hobbes, who continued to name things he had done and Calvin had been blamed for, laughing all the way.

However, neither noticed the fact that something was sneaking up behind him. It was rather large, and it had a lens on the front with a beeping red light. It watched them running off into the distance. It turned around and saw a pair of figures walking out of the brush. It was Mom and Dad, who didn't notice the object, mainly because it was a tree branch.

"Where's Dr. Griffin's campsite?" asked Mom.

"He said it was at the exact middle of island. That's not too much further from here," Dad replied.

"How do you know?"

"There's a sign over there that says _TO THE CENTER OF THE ISLAND_."

Mom noticed the sign with the words on it. "Oh."

They turned to a surrounding of trees that were in circles. They entered it and looked around. They saw a lone tent with a campfire in front of it. Dr. Griffin was waiting.

"Ah, so nice to see that you found your way," he said.

"What did you ask us here for?" asked Dad.

"I have brought with me the ways to solve all your problems," he said. "Please step into the tent."

The tent was one of those tall tents. The one you can stand in.

"Now why can't _we_ have tents like this?" Mom demanded.

Dad ignored her and continued into the tent where Dr. Griffin was waiting.

"What is this answer you have for us?" he asked.

Dr. Griffin pulled out a crowbar and pried open a giant crate that sat near him. He pulled out a packet.

"This," he said.

"What is it?" asked Mom.

"In this packet is a special formula. It's been approved by the government. This is a special brain modificator. The pills go straight to the brain and repair the problem. He should be done with the modifications by tomorrow if he takes them today."

Dad looked at the pills. "Calvin will never take these. He hates pills."

"I suggest hiding them in some food."

"I'll put it in his sandwich," Dad said.

"Are you sure this will work?" Mom asked.

"Trust me. Two of my previous patients were given this pill and it worked like a charm."

"Okay, thanks," said Dad.

The two of them left the tent and disappeared.

Dr. Griffin chuckled. "Heh, heh. Yes, it worked perfectly on my last two patients, although I wouldn't quite call them patients. I'd call them more like _prisoners_."

He pressed a button, and the tent dropped. Then a space ship suddenly faded into place overhead. A familiar escalator dropped down, and down walked a pair of familiar aliens.

"Galaxoid! Nebular!" shouted Dr. Griffin. "Atten_tion_!"

The two aliens stood in line and said, "Sir, yes, sir!"

Dr. Griffin then removed his toupee and took the head plaster off, allowing two goofy, poofy sideburns to pop out. His body changed form and became a bit scrawnier.

If you think that's Retro, you're right on the money.

"Okay, you two," said the evil genius. "Status report?"

"The machine is almost ready," said Galaxoid in a robotic voice.

"Very good. Very good," Retro said, walking around and scratching his chin. "And the kid?"

"We've been tracking him all afternoon. He's currently at the left side of the island," said Nebular.

"Very good. At least he's still here. Get back to tracking."

"Yes, sir," said Galaxoid.

They turned to board the ship.

"Oh, yes. Boys?" he said.

The two stopped to take on any new orders.

"Start making more of those pills. Then start distributing them to the town in manner of which I explained earlier."

"Yes, sir," they chimed.

They scurried up into the ship to start production.

* * *

Meanwhile, Calvin was out of breath from chasing Hobbes. Hobbes had outrun him and disappeared.

"Stupid…_ (pant, pant)_…TIGER!" he shouted. "Get back here and… _(wheeze)_… fight like a tiger!"

He collapsed on a giant boulder that overlooked the lake. He sat up and looked out at the sight. The sun was about to set. It was a beautiful bunch of red, yellow and orange, mixed in with blue, green and a splash of purple, making it look like a painting.

Normally, Calvin would've dismissed such a lovely scene as boring, but this time was different. He felt a warm feeling inside. For a brief moment, he thought maybe things would turn out all right. Maybe it was a false alarm, and Galaxoid and Nebular were coming for a visit. If so, that would make this whole thing more enjoyable. The two of them and Hobbes were perfect friends…

Suddenly, his thoughts changed. Hobbes? _Hobbes_… He thought for a moment. It was then that he questioned just what Hobbes really was. He had never thought of why people had referred to him as a stuffed tiger, and if he ever did, he thought he knew what they meant. However, this time, something was different. This wasn't another game of Calvinball, or a fantasy like Spaceman Spiff. This was a serious matter, and for the first time ever, he thought that maybe Hobbes maybe _wasn't _real! Maybe he was just a figment of imagination that only he saw.

But then he thought back to several past adventures. Their first meet, their first wild wagon ride, the experience with the Transmogrifier, battling the monsters under the bed, the attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons, the adventure they'd once had at a mini-golf course, the journey through his backpack, clearing their names after a milk incident, the attack of Dad's computer, the model plane incident, etc, etc, etc,… The list was endless! All those times, Hobbes had been there. Calvin managed to get the disturbing thoughts out of his head, and just in time.

"Hey," came a voice.

Calvin turned around and saw Hobbes was approaching.

"Hey," Calvin replied.

Hobbes sat down on the rock with him.

"Nice view, huh?"

"Nice view, huh, indeed," Calvin nodded.

"CALVIN!" a voice shouted. "Dinner time!"

Calvin and Hobbes got down and ran back to the campsite, not seeing a spaceship fly back in the opposite direction.

Once they were back at the campsite, Calvin and his stuffed tiger emerged.

"There you are!" Dad said. "Just in time for a scrumptious meal!"

He handed Calvin a pair of sandwiches.

"Spam sandwiches?" Calvin asked. "Oh golly, Dad, you're spoiling us."

"Yeah, I know," Dad said, not noting the sarcasm.

Calvin sat down on a log with Hobbes and started eating the sandwich. However, it wasn't very good, so he spit out the first bite.

"You want it?" he asked Hobbes.

Hobbes handed him his own sandwich. "No thanks."

Calvin noticed Mom and Dad were about to start eating their sandwiches, but then Mom said, "Do you hear something?"

"Let's go see," Dad said.

A figure quickly disappeared into the brush as Mom and Dad went to investigate.

Calvin and Hobbes saw Mom and Dad's sandwiches sitting on the log next to them.

"I've got an idea!" Calvin said excitedly.

He grabbed onto Mom's sandwich. He ripped it apart and to the knife from the spam jars. He scraped off the spam from his sandwich, as well as the you-know-what's that were in it. He then slapped it into Mom's sandwich and put it back together.

Hobbes got the idea, and did the same thing with Dad's and his own.

"Clever, Calvin," Hobbes said. "I don't know what I'd do without you!"

"Same here, ol' buddy," Calvin nodded.

Mom and Dad returned and saw Calvin finishing up the sandwich. The other one was gone, but they assumed he'd eaten.

"Wow, you ate it all!" Dad said. "I'm impressed."

"Well, it was hard to stomach, but my stomach microbes are working hard to keep it down."

Mom and Dad started to eat the sandwiches, not knowing what happened. Calvin snickered and winked to Hobbes. However, he had no idea what he had just done. They failed to notice a green glow from their eyes…

* * *

Later that night, Calvin and Hobbes were sitting in their tent, a flashlight on and reading comic books.

"Do you think we should go to bed?" Calvin asked.

"What do you mean?" Hobbes asked, managing to look up.

"Well, we know that something is very wrong on this island. Maybe one of us should stay up and keep watch."

"But we're awake already. Wide awake, I might add."

"Then maybe we should investigate," Calvin said, eyes narrowing.

"But I'm right in the middle of the _Captain Napalm _comic. He's about to—"

"Don't say it!" Calvin shouted. "I haven't finished it yet."

Calvin slowly unzipped the tent and checked his surroundings. So far, so good. There was no one around. But then again, he was facing the lake. The lake looked pretty peaceful. The canoe was right there, and behind it was civilization. They could see headlights going past the canoe rental shack, which was also in view.

Calvin slowly left the tent and looked around behind them. The forest was quite a fright, as opposed to the lake. There were monstrous-looking trees that seemed to reach out for him with their branches.

"Is it safe?" Hobbes whispered.

"For the most part," Calvin replied.

They grabbed flashlight and slowly left. The minute they were in the woods, there was an eerie green glow coming from Mom and Dad's tent.


	6. Phase One of the Plan

Late that night, a familiar craft was slowly flying over the homes of those in Calvin's neighborhood. Unknown to the local residents, it was currently hovering in the exact center of town. It started to send little objects through windows of homes, using special beams to send them into jars of food, like peanut butter or cereal boxes, or even coffee mix. As soon as the deed was done, the craft slipped silently away into the night…

* * *

Calvin and Hobbes, both holding flashlights, wandered into the woods. They had left behind the campsite, unaware of what to do.

"What are we doing?" Hobbes whispered.

"We're going to figure out what's going on in the center of the island," Calvin replied.

"What for? I think it's sort of obvious that there are aliens."

Calvin rolled his eyes. He forged on through the brush.

"We're almost there," he said. "I can see the sign."

They bushed some branches aside and made their way into the clearing. They saw something familiar.

"The spaceship," Calvin whispered.

They ran up to it, but then Hobbes stopped.

"Wait a minute. Reality check, Calvin," he said. "Do we _really_ want to go on board a dangerous space ship with lots of dangerous stuff that could possibly prove fatal?"

Calvin stopped and looked back at him. "You just hate finding adventure, don't you? Come on! Be a man! Let's get to it!"

Hobbes relented and they continued on to the ship.

"Oh, darn!" Hobbes said. "No way in. Let's go back now."

He turned to leave, but Calvin grabbed his tail.

"Everything has a way in, Hobbes," he said. "You just have to find it."

Calvin remembered that famous escalator that Galaxoid and Nebular always came down, so he started to climb up the long legs of the craft.

Hobbes groaned and followed.

Once they made it up there, Calvin spotted the opening. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crowbar. He pried on the doors as hard as he could until they finally opened. He scrambled inside. Hobbes jumped in after him.

"What do we do now?" Hobbes asked.

Calvin motioned him to follow. They walked down a long corridor. Calvin was really excited. It wasn't the first time he'd been a spaceship, but last time he had only been in the control room. This time, he wanted to explore the rest of it. They looked all around, but Hobbes had a feeling someone was watching him. He got inkling when he saw the video cameras that followed their movement.

"Calvin, those cameras are watching us," he whispered.

Calvin looked up and saw the mechanism on the lookout.

"This getting creepy," he said. "Let's get away from here."

He grabbed Hobbes' arm and they ran from the camera. Unfortunately, there were several more down the hall.

"What are we going to do?" Hobbes asked. "Everyone on board will know we're here."

Calvin looked around frantically. He spotted something: a chute!

He opened the door on it and peered down into the room they'd wind up in. It was safe.

"Quick! Down here!"

Hobbes leapt down the chute. Calvin followed.

They landed in a cart filled with cloth.

"That must've been a laundry chute," Hobbes said.

They looked all around. The room was filled with crates. Each one was marked with the words _MUST BE SHIPPED BY TONIGHT_.

Calvin ran to a crate before Hobbes could stop him. He yanked out the crowbar and started to rip the crate open.

"Calvin, if you open that, people will know we were in here!" Hobbes cried.

"So?"

Hobbes slapped his forehead and turned away.

"Hey, they're pills!" Calvin said.

Hobbes whirled around to look. He snatched a pack away from Calvin.

"They're labeled _DR. GRIFFIN'S MIND CHANGING PILLS. GUARRANTEED TO REPAIR YOUR MIND JUST THEY I WANT IT._"

"That's something you won't hear on Dr. Phil," Calvin said, putting the top back on the crate.

"Wait, shouldn't it say 'you' instead of 'I'?"

"Eh?"

"It should say that it's guaranteed to repair your mind the way _you_ want it; not the way _he _wants it."

Calvin thought this over. "What do you suppose it means?"

"I don't know. Let's just get out of here."

Suddenly, they heard voices. They were somewhat distant.

"Where's that coming from?" Hobbes asked.

"Up there!" Calvin said, pointing at the air ducts.

Using the crates as a staircase, they ran up and climbed into the ducts.

* * *

They crawled for what felt like hours. They finally reached the end of the tunnel, and they found the way out.

Hobbes kicked the vent out, and they dropped to the floor. They noticed something very familiar about this place.

"We're back in the control room," Hobbes whispered.

Then they heard footsteps. They quickly ducked into a cupboard, where they waited.

A door opened, and they heard three pairs of footsteps.

"…and another thing," a voice was saying, "if you two don't start buckling down and getting this work done right, I don't know why I keep you around."

"But it was an accident," a second voice said.

"I don't care!" the first voice said again. "That was my best china!"

Calvin and Hobbes looked at each, trying to understand what this meant.

"Now then," said the first voice. "The boss says that by tomorrow, we need to activate the pills. The kid is on the island, so we need to command him to—"

"Um, boss?" asked another voice.

"What?"

"We tracked his pills, and he didn't take it."

"What? Well, what happened to the pills?"

"He put them in his _parents'_ sandwiches."

They heard someone slap their forehead. "Oh, perfect. When the boss hears about this, he'll have a fit."

"Not necessarily," said a voice. A fourth voice. A voice that Calvin and Hobbes recognized.

RETRO!

"This could actually work to our advantage. Those pills will take the effect once they've entered someone's mouth. They go directly to the brain. That means that his parents have been affected by them. We can send _them_ to do the dirty work, and no one will suspect anyone else, other than them."

They could hear clapping now.

Calvin and Hobbes had heard enough. They had to get out of here. Calvin pulled out a glowing box.

"What's they hypercube for?" asked Hobbes.

"Get in. I have an idea."

So Hobbes climbed into the hypercube. Calvin did too, but he left his feet sticking out. He slowly slipped out of cupboard so that he looked like a tiny box with red sneakers. He ran carefully across the floor unnoticed by everyone, and he made his way out the door.

"Okay, Hobbes," he said. "It's safe."

When they had both climbed out, they ran back to the door. They jumped out and slid down the long legs. They scrambled off into the woods, hoping to get back to the campsite and do something about Mom and Dad.

* * *

Back on the ship, Retro was sitting down at his new desk. He looked at the monitors on the wall nearby. They were all linked up to the security cameras in the halls. As he examined them, he noticed that there was something different about the shot of the main corridor: the shot was pointed at the laundry chute, rather than the main entrance.

He put his hand on the bottom of the little monitor and hit the rewind button. It took a few minutes, but he finally saw something. A familiar blonde boy was suddenly coming out of the laundry chute, and then a familiar stuffed tiger came up with him. Then the camera shot went back to the main entrance, following them down the hall.

He then looked at the one that watched over the shipping room, which is where the crates were. He rewound that one, and he could see Calvin coming out of the air ducts with the stuffed tiger, down the crates, standing around an open one… Wait, that one interested him. He zoomed in and saw Calvin holding a packet. He was reading the pill packet.

Retro sighed happily, which was odd, and he pressed an intercom button his desk. "Agent 1?"

"Yes, sir?" a reply came.

"I've decided to pull the deadline to now. Activate the pills now."

"What? But sir, not everyone has taken theirs yet."

"It will take effect when it is put in the mouth. Don't worry about it."

"Sure thing, boss."

Retro sat down in his chair. Oh, to be evil…

* * *

The sun was rising in Calvin's neighborhood. Susie Derkins was just leaving her house to play on the sidewalk.

"It's a lovely day, isn't it, Mr. Bun?" she asked her toy rabbit. "Yes, the birds are singing, the sun is shining, the sky is blue…and Calvin isn't here. This is truly a great day."

Then Susie saw something strange coming from the window across the street. It was an eerie green glow.

"That was odd," she said.

She quickly ran across the street and looked into the window, but everything looked normal.

Then she noticed another familiar green glow coming from another house. Then another one.

"Something strange is going on around here," she said to Mr. Bun.

Then she spotted another glow coming from her own house. She ran back and ran inside.

"Mom?" she shouted. "Dad?"

Mr. and Mrs. Derkins weren't exactly looking very parental right then. Their eyes were nothing but green!

"What's going on?" Susie demanded.

Suddenly, they stood up and their arms reached for her.

Susie knew something was up, so she ran for her life, Mr. Bun tight in her grasp.

"This like one of Calvin's Show and Tells," she said to herself as she ran up to her room.

Once she was there, she looked out the window and saw what was going on below. People were coming out of their homes, arms outstretched and all set for something.

"What's going on?" she asked again.

She heard her brain-dead parents coming upstairs. She quickly locked the door and hid under the bed. She heard her door being smashed down. Her parents came to the bed and managed to push it away, revealing her to be under it.

"Mom! Dad! What are you doing?" she asked frantically.

There was no response. Mrs. Derkins held up a pill.

Susie was confused, but she ran anyway. She ran between their legs and hurried for her broken down door, only to find more people were trashing the house and coming towards her.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" she hollered.

She looked all around. She was surrounded.

The green-eyed people closed in and shoved the pill into her mouth. Susie screamed, but then she got real quiet. Her eyes turned green.

The first phase of Retro's plan was complete.


	7. The Horrible Truth

It was dawn by the time Calvin and Hobbes returned to the campsite. However, something was different.

"Where're Mom and Dad?" Calvin asked frantically.

Hobbes ran into the tent and found that it was empty.

"They're not here," he said. "It's empty."

Calvin looked around frantically. Something wasn't right here.

"How are we gonna find them? This island's huge!"

"Maybe there's something in your hypercube?" Hobbes suggested.

Calvin reached into his pocket and pulled out the glowing cube. He reached inside and pulled out a familiar cardboard box.

"Me and my big mouth," Hobbes muttered.

"It's our only hope. We have to find Mom and Dad and find a way to get them to hurl those pills."

"Calvin, the pills went to their brains, not their stomachs. Making them throw up isn't going to work."

"Well, what are we going to do? We have to do something."

They climbed into the box, put on their goggles and prepared for takeoff.

"When we find your parents, what are we going to do with them?" Hobbes asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

They took to the skies above the island. Calvin pulled out the binoculars and searched the island.

"Do you see anyone?" Hobbes asked.

"Yes, Hobbes. That's why we're flying down towards them."

"Oh, well, if you're going be like _that_…"

The sun was rising quickly, so there was a bright red color that filled the sky. The island was shining brightly, which struck Calvin as odd. Especially when he spotted a rock that seemed to shine.

"What's that?" Calvin asked.

Hobbes grabbed the binoculars and looked down. "I'd say it's a tree, just like that one and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one…"

"Not that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that and that. I meant _that_!" He pointed that time.

Hobbes observed a bit more closely. "I can't tell. It's so shiny that I can't make it out properly."

Calvin slammed on the brakes, causing the binoculars to fly from Hobbes' hands.

"Oh my good-golly-gosh," Calvin said slowly. "Hobbes, we've struck gold."

"We haven't touched it yet," Hobbes said.

So Calvin flew down to the golden rock and rammed hard into it. A huge airbag ploomed out, and they slammed into it.

"Okay, _now_ we've struck it."

Hobbes quickly got out of the box, and he started to look around the rock.

"Calvin, I think this _is_ gold!" he said excitedly.

Calvin scratched the rock. "It's certainly not painted, that's for sure."

Hobbes breathed on it and rubbed it, only to see his reflection.

"Oh, it even _looks_ good. It's real!"

Calvin whooped. "That's one in the head for old Dad."

"So, how do we plan to move it?"

Calvin pulled out the hypercube. He flew up to the top of the rock and tossed the hypercube on top, open-side-up. The gold was immediately sucked into cube. Calvin flew down to the ground.

"Well, that took care of that," he decided.

They put the cube back in the box, and they flew off back into the sky.

"Hobbes, I know that a lot of my get-rich-quick schemes have failed in the past, but we have finally succeeded! WE ARE RICH! WEALTHY! FINANCIALLY SECURE!" he screeched.

Hobbes rolled his eyes and sat back. "Now that we have the gold, what do we do with it?"

"We'll buy this whole planet! We'll be the ultimate rulers!"

Suddenly, a bolt of green crimson shot across the sky, narrowly missing them.

Hobbes looked over his shoulder. "I think _they'd_ like to say different."

Calvin looked back and saw a familiar spacecraft was zapping at them.

"Oh, no they don't!" he shouted.

He aimed the box towards the island, doing a nosedive. The spacecraft shot down after them.

"MY STOMACH!" Hobbes screamed.

Calvin had to pull up before they crashed, and they took to the skies again. He looked back and saw that the craft had disappeared.

"Hey, where'd it go?"

Hobbes looked all around, but the craft was indeed gone. Instead, he saw two purple little hover-scooters heading towards them. He pulled out a spare set of binoculars and looked at them.

"Oh my…," he said.

"What is it?" Calvin called.

Hobbes handed him the binoculars. Calvin looked back and saw, wearing purple jumpsuits and goggles…

"MOM AND DAD?" he screamed.

Indeed, Mom and Dad were flying the scooters after them, and on their helmets were giant bazookas! The fact that they could hold them on their heads was a testament to how strong they really are.

"How on earth…?" Hobbes started.

"It's the pills, Hobbes! The pills! Retro's got them under his control! We've got to get away from this island."

Suddenly, there was a sputter, and the box suddenly malfunctioned. They hovered in midair for a brief moment before it plummeted into the campsite. Fortunately, they landed on one of the tents, so the impact was softened.

"This couldn't possibly get any worse," Calvin moaned.

Suddenly, they heard a familiar engine, followed by some awful snapping noises with scraping metal.

"I think it's getting worse," Hobbes sighed.

They got up and quickly ran to their own tent. They ran inside to hide.

"What do we do?"

"Start packing," Calvin ordered. "We're getting out of here."

They loaded their bags and ran outside. They immediately wished they'd gone out the other way.

Retro was sitting there in his claw-car.

"Oh, Calvin!" Retro said in mock surprise. "What a shock to see you here."

Calvin held his stuffed tiger in front of him, hoping something would happen.

"Hobbes! Attack! Attack!"

Nothing.

Retro laughed madly. "You think that little stuffed tiger is going to help you? Calvin, don't you understand the concept of your little friend?"

Calvin gulped and dared to look Retro in the eye.

"What do you mean?" he asked meekly.

"Hobbes doesn't exist! He's fake! Phony! False! Pure imagination on your part!"

Calvin's eyes started to water.

"I don't understand…," he said.

"Of course not! You're an idiotic child," Retro cackled. "This tiger isn't a real tiger. He's a toy powered to be real by your imagination! That's why I did the whole Dr. Griffin thing. If I separated you two and helped you realize what a lie your life has been, you'd lose confidence in yourself, and I'd eliminate you once and for all."

Calvin stared at Retro, trying not to believe him. But when he looked at Hobbes, he didn't see the tall, furry friend that he'd grown to know and love. He was as he was: a plain stuffed tiger.

"NOOO!" he screamed, dropping to his knees.

He held the stuffed tiger tightly. He looked up at Retro, who simply glared down at him menacingly.

It was then that Calvin did something purely amazing. He didn't cry. He didn't get mad. Instead, he attacked Retro. How?

"Take _this_!"

He grabbed a huge rock. Normally he wouldn't be able to budge it, but he was so angry that he found it within himself to lift up the rock and hurl at Retro.

Retro was whacked on the head, and he fell out of the car.

Then Calvin jumped into the car and started hitting several buttons.

The claw went down and started to scoop up loads of sand. The sand was hoisted up set above Retro.

Retro managed to regain himself and push Calvin out of the car.

"Thought you could get the better of me, huh?" he snarled. "Take _this_!"

He hit the button that opened the claw, only for sand to be dumped all over him.

During all this, Calvin had grabbed his stuff (including the now lifeless Hobbes) and was in the canoe, paddling like mad, trying to go forward. He finally tossed the paddle out, and reached into the hypercube. He pulled out an outboard motor. He placed it on the back and yanked the cord, causing them to shoot forward towards land.

Retro dug his way out of the sand and grabbed his walkie-talkie.

"Galaxoid! Nebular!" he shouted.

The two aliens were beamed down from their spaceship to land. They saluted.

"Get them now!"

"Right, boss!" they chimed.

They boarded a pair of hover-scooters and took off after the canoe.

It only took a minute to get across the lake, and Calvin grabbed his things and dashed for the car. It was lucky for him that it was unlocked and the key was still in the ignition.

"Finally!" he said. "My chance to get that motor running and head out on the highway."

He turned the key and put the car in neutral. However, he wasn't tall enough to see where he was going. He knew that if Hobbes was himself, he'd be able to drive.

"Hobbes, come back! Get back in your body now!"

Hobbes just sat there, the same stuffed tiger.

Calvin was frantic. He could see Galaxoid and Nebular were coming closer, and there was little he could do.

All he could do was remember. He remembered that time they won the triathlon. He remembered the time they became the ski kings of Mt. Superior. He remembered how they'd skipped school together in that really cool car. He remembered all the GROSS meetings and the games of Calvinball.

A tear dropped from Calvin's eye and he hugged his faithful friend.

"It's the end," he said sadly. "We don't stand a chance. My best friend has been a toy all these years, and now I can't get any help from him at all."

But Calvin thought about all those thoughts again. He remembered how Hobbes had helped out all those times. Something was seriously not right. How could he be a toy?

He went to the backseat, leaving Hobbes and curling up into a ball.

Galaxoid and Nebular had finally caught up and saw a boy and a stuffed tiger sitting there in the car.

"There they are," said Galaxoid.

"Indeed," said Nebular. "I must say, the tiger has lost some weight."

Galaxoid looked closely at the tiger in the passenger seat.

"Wait! That's not the tiger!"

"It's not?"

"Well, technically it is, but it isn't. It's a stuffed tiger. No doubt it's part of Retro's plan."

"But how could he have turned the tiger into a toy?" Nebular asked.

"I'll bet it was those Imaginator Sensors that he had hidden in his Three Stooges Haircut. He probably changed the tiger into a toy to ruin the Earth Potentate's chances of winning."

"Well then, it's a good thing that those pills didn't have any effect on us at all," Nebular said. "Otherwise, that kid would be in _loads_ of trouble."

"Indeed. Come on. While we were in the office, I swiped this baby!" Galaxoid said. He yanked out a familiar machine from the back of the hover-scooter.

"Those compartments can hold _any_thing!" Nebular exclaimed.

Calvin was still sniffling in the backseat when he heard something tapping on the window. He dared to look, and was surprised to see Galaxoid and Nebular.

"You two!" he cried.

He threw the door open and looked down at them.

"What are you two doing here? I thought you were working for Retro!"

"Are you nuts?" Galaxoid snapped. "Work for him?"

"We were working undercover," added Nebular mysteriously.

"Huh?" Calvin asked.

"We only _pretended _that the pills effected us so that we could help you."

Calvin didn't feel any better. "Well, thanks for trying to help, guys, but my life's a lie. Hobbes has been a _toy_ all my life, only triggered by my imagination!"

"So _that's_ the tiger's name," Nebular whispered.

Galaxoid ignored him. "Retro used Imaginator Sensors to turn Hobbes into a toy. He's a real tiger, all right. He's just been a bit tampered with."

Calvin immediately brightened up. "Really? How do we bring him back?"

The two aliens pointed (somehow) to the machine nearby.

"The Imaginator?" Calvin cried.

"Version 2.0.," Galaxoid finished. "We swiped it from the lab when it came time to leave."

"This works out perfectly!"

Calvin immediately slapped his helmet on and turned to Hobbes. A bolt of energy came out and hit the stuffed tiger. He slowly morphed from his fake look turned to a slightly more realistic tiger.

"WHAT HAPPENED? WHERE ARE WE? ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?" he shouted.

Calvin jumped him. "Hobbes, you're back!" he cheered.

"Where'd I go?" Hobbes asked.

"Retro is completely whacked! He tricked me into thinking you weren't real, and then he turned you into a toy! We need to get out of here before he does it again!"

"How?"

They all looked at the car.

"Oh, no," Hobbes moaned.

"Oh, _yes_!" said Calvin.

"There is nothing in this world that could get me to drive that car."

Suddenly, the earth began to rumble.

Calvin, Hobbes, Galaxoid and Nebular looked at the island, only it didn't look like an island anymore. It had taken on a new form; that of a military base. They could see the spacecraft sitting there. Fleets of little ships were flying out into the sky, setting off to the far corners of the earth.

"It's all part of Retro's plan!" cried Nebular. "He's using the Imaginator to transform the world into what he's always desired!"

"Okay, there's something right there," Hobbes said. "Everyone get in!"

The four of them piled into the car (Calvin grabbed the new Imaginator).

"Okay, Calvin, get on the floor. Galaxoid. Nebular. You two get in the backseat," Hobbes ordered.

The two aliens obeyed, but Calvin didn't.

"The floor? Why?" he demanded.

"Because I'm driving the car, okay?" Hobbes sneered.

Calvin arched an eyebrow.

"Okay, that and because I'm not tall enough to reach the pedals. Do it!"

Calvin gave him a dirty look and got down on all fours.

"Hit the clutch or brake when I tell you," he said.

He turned back to Galaxoid and Nebular.

"Please fasten your seatbelts. The emergency exits are located to your left and right. In the quite likely event of an emergency, put your head between your, er, tentacles and—"

"Kiss your butt goodbye!" Calvin cut in coldly.

The two aliens gulped. They tightened their seatbelts.

Hobbes put the car in drive and looked down. "Oh great. It's a stick," he groaned. He put it in reverse. The car wasn't moving right.

"Why aren't we moving yet?" Calvin called, his hands gently pushing on the gas pedal.

Hobbes reached to the glove compartment and pulled out the owner's manual.

"Here," he said, tossing it to Galaxoid. "Read it and tell us what to do."

Galaxoid quickly flipped the pages. He looked through _TABLE OF CONTENTS_, searching madly for the chapter that would start the car.

Calvin peeked over the dashboard and looked. A fleet of ships was heading for them, firing plasma blasts. One of them set the canoe on fire.

"Hurry up!" he called.

"Okay, I found the chapter!" Galaxoid cried.

"What do we do?" Hobbes asked.

"Depress the clutch and ease into first gear."

Hobbes prepared to shift gears, but Calvin wasn't doing his part. Okay, he was, but not the way he supposed to.

"I used to have a beautiful life, clutch," he was saying. "Then school entered my life. It ruined me, clutch."

"First of all, that wasn't all the depressing," Hobbes said. "It means to press it gently."

"Hey, you're one to talk. You used to think a clutch was a small purse."

The fleet was getting closer.

Calvin gently pushed the clutch down, and Hobbes eased the stick to first gear.

"Okay, now gently press the accelerator as you slowly let out the clutch."

Hobbes did so, and then he noticed something.

"We did it! We're moving!"

They pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway, where they got away just in time. A plasma blast was fired at the spot where they had just been.

"Now hit the gas and drive like all get out!" Galaxoid shouted.

"Does it actually say that?" Nebular asked.

"No, but I don't care! Drive!"

Calvin sat down on the gas pedal and they shot down the highway. Hobbes was steering carefully to avoid upcoming obstacles.

"That's strange," Hobbes observed. "There aren't any other cars out here!"

"It's another part of Retro's plan!" explained Nebular. "He's enslaving the human race. Those pills were built by his imagination."

"Then maybe we can think up the antidote!" Calvin said.

Hobbes watched all the space fleets take off into the horizon. "Those fleets must be off to give pills to everyone on the planet!" he gasped.

"Then we've got to stop them!" Calvin decided.

"Well, we've got a full tank of gas," Hobbes said, examining the gauges. "At the rate we're going, we should be back in our neighborhood in no time."

"Let's hope so," Calvin sighed. "My butt's gonna get sore after a while."

As they shot down the road, Galaxoid was now flipping through the pages of owner's manual.

"Oh, I seriously doubt they're getting _this_ kind of mileage," he muttered to Nebular.


	8. Calvin's 2nd Greatest Enemy

Retro stood in the main control room. He watched proudly as fleets of ships carrying his armies were taken all over the world. The armies would see to it that his slaves carried out his orders.

"Let's see," he pondered. "What should I rename the Earth? Retropia? Retria? Or maybe something simple like the Planet of the Retro."

There was a buzz on his desk.

"Mr. Retro, Bob is here to see you."

"Send him in."

The doors opened, and in walked a timid-looking man. He had on rectangular glasses.

"R-Retro?" he stuttered nervously.

"Bob?"

"It seems that Galaxoid and Nebular were unaffected by the pills, and are now helping the boy and tiger get back to their own town."

"I see."

Retro paused for a moment to think.

"Did you pick up the files for me, by the way?"

Bob looked up. "Oh, yes. Here they are."

Retro was handed a portfolio. He looked through the different papers. There was a paper on Calvin's parents. There was another on Galaxoid and Nebular. There were some about Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet and Stupendous Man. However, there was one that interested him more than the others.

"Hmmm," he said. "This might be what I need. Bob!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Fetch the Imaginator Sensors. I'm feeling a new idea coming on."

"Yes sir."

Bob left, and Retro hummed happily to himself.

"Let's see, where was I…? Oh, right. There's always San Franretro…"

* * *

A beaten car sputtered and coughed into a deserted neighborhood. It was their own, but it was different.

Hobbes looked out the window. "Where is everyone?"

Calvin got off the brake to look. "Retro's probably asked them all to gather somewhere. We need to get to them now."

"How're we gonna do that?" asked Galaxoid. "This car is in no condition to be driven."

"Where there's a will, there's a way," Calvin said. "And I have the will to find that way."

He ran to his house and got something, which he brought back to them a bit later.

"Oh come on!" Hobbes shouted.

It was the wagon.

"We don't have much a choice, Hobbes. Look at the car! We couldn't possibly use it anymore."

"And yet, I'd feel safer in it."

Calvin got in front, and Galaxoid and Nebular squeezed in behind him. There was just enough room for Hobbes.

Having no choice, Hobbes pushed the wagon hard, and he jumped in.

They rocketed down the streets, looking for people and maybe clues.

"Where is everyone?" Calvin shouted.

"Look over there!" said Nebular.

They all saw two green beams of light shooting up into the sky just ahead, and they were moving back in forth.

"Spotlights!" said Calvin. "Maybe they're all over there."

Calvin steered through wreckage that the citizens had made. There were trees over the road, and the houses seemed to be boarded up.

Finally, they reached the streets that were packed with people.

"How do we get in there?" asked Hobbes.

"Like this," Calvin replied.

They parked the wagon behind a tree. Then Calvin reached into the hypercube and pulled out the box. They all piled into it and it flew to the sky above the crowds. They saw a big stage and landed on top of the overhang.

"Front row seats," he said.

They all got out and looked down to see someone standing at podium.

"Who's that?" asked Calvin.

"That's one of the imaginary army men that Retro created," said Galaxoid. "They're giving out orders to the slaves."

Calvin and Hobbes watched closely.

"Okay, everyone. You all have mission," the army man said. "You are all to do Retro's bidding, and those include finding the boy and the tiger, as well as two rebellion aliens, and destroy them once and for all."

The four figures above him were nervous and sweating, hoping that no one would see them.

"Look at everyone down," Calvin whispered. "Everyone we know is here, and they've all got glowing green eyes. Mom and Dad, Susie, Moe, Miss Wormwood, Mr. Spittle, Rosalyn, Andy, Sherman…"

"Wait, that hamster took a pill?" Hobbes asked. "Well, it seems some good came out of this."

"We need to break this spell and free everyone somehow," Calvin said. "But how?"

Galaxoid and Nebular looked at each other. "Imaginator."

Calvin and Hobbes perked up. "That's it! We need to get the Imaginator and think up an antidote. Where is it?"

"It's still in the car," said Hobbes. "Let's head back."

They all piled back into the box. Unfortunately, Calvin was so excited that he took off right over the crowd, rather than sneak around.

"THERE HE IS!" shouted the army man.

Hobbes slapped his forehead. "Moron," he muttered.

"Don't worry," Calvin said. "They'll never catch us up here."

Suddenly a hot shot of red blasted past them.

"Maybe not, but _they_ can," said Galaxoid, pointing behind them.

A fleet of battle ships was flying after them.

"FASTER!" Hobbes shouted.

Calvin managed to redirect the box down towards the streets. The ship flew after them.

"AAAAHHH!" everyone screamed.

Calvin did a sudden nosedive. The ship followed. Calvin pulled up seconds before hitting the ground. The ship didn't. It crashed and flipped across the streets.

The box flew back to the car, and they jumped out and ran inside.

"Let's get this thing working!" said Hobbes.

They tossed Calvin the helmet, who immediately thought about an antidote.

In a beam of light, something appeared outside. It was a crate. Once they had it opened, they found that it was…

"Pills?" asked Calvin.

"They're a different color from the mind-control pills," said Nebular. "These must reverse they effects."

"The mind-control pills have a tendency to wear off after a few days," added Galaxoid. "New pills will be sent out to the world an hour before this happens so as to keep it all working without a pause."

"Well, then, let's get this crate back to the island so that we can switch it."

"Actually, they're being shipped out from another state," said Nebular. "We'll take you there, if you'll let us drive."

"Very well," Calvin agreed.

Hobbes went pale.

They loaded the crate into the box, and they took to the skies, Galaxoid and Nebular up front.

Calvin continued to look down at the sights below him, which didn't seem to change. There were people roaming the streets with green eyes. The streets and towns were all in ruins of their former glory and everything.

* * *

Back in his lair at the island, Retro was watching everything. He could see the four friends flying off to the production of pills, and he was enjoying it.

Bob couldn't understand why. "Sir, they've got the antidote, and they're going to ruin your plans. Why are you so happy?"

"Because," Retro said, "even if they _do_ make it and save everyone, I've sent for a special someone to wait for them."

"You mean…?"

"Yes. Be sure that he's still happy. We don't want him killing anyone other than those four."

"Yes sir," said Bob, and he left.

The box landed in a once again deserted street, over a hundred miles from home.

"Where are we?" Calvin asked.

"I dunno," said Galaxoid. "We just programmed the coordinates into this box. We don't know the name of this place."

"Figures," Hobbes muttered.

They climbed out of the box and looked around.

"The production building is over here," Nebular whispered.

They hunched behind a corner and saw a giant building with smokestacks.

"That can't be healthy for the earth, with or without the smokestacks," said Hobbes.

Calvin then noticed a familiar figure with glowing green eyes.

"Uncle Max!" he whispered loudly. "This must be his town!"

Indeed, Dad's brother was walking into the giant building.

"Quick!" said Nebular. "Let's follow him!"

Checking their timing, they bolted after Max into the building.

Max bent over and picked up a giant box. He carried it away towards a conveyor belt.

"Those are crates of mind-control pills!" said Hobbes.

"We need to switch those with these," said Calvin.

When Max had left, they ran forward, carrying the crate.

Hobbes lifted the bad crate off, and Calvin, Galaxoid and Nebular put the good crate on. Then Nebular fried the bad pills with a ray gun, and then blasted the pill-making machine, totaling the system.

"The pills will be distributed all over the world within half an hour," said Galaxoid. "We need to get over to your town to make sure it all goes smoothly."

"Oh, I doubt you'll get anywhere," said a familiar voice.

They all whirled around to see Retro standing over them, with an army mind-controlled citizens right behind them.

"Okay, Larry," said Calvin, making a Three Stooges reference.

"How did you know my nickname?" asked Retro, who was actually surprised.

Everyone took a look at his hairdo and rolled their eyes.

"Anyway, I think we can take on your dumb human army no problem," Calvin said firmly.

"I'm sure you could, which is why I thought ahead."

He snapped his fingers. The humans parted.

"What's going on?" Hobbes whispered to Galaxoid.

"I'm not sure. This must be new."

It certainly was.

Something that only Calvin and Hobbes recognized was moving towards them.

"You see, I looked up some past adventures of yours, I found another enemy of yours. Please give it up for…the TEACHER CREATURE!"

Calvin and Hobbes gulped hard as the giant figure walked toward them. It looked just like it had back when they had been trapped in the old school last month.

"We're in serious trouble here," whimpered Hobbes.

"No we're not!" said Calvin. "Watch!"

He jumped the creature and gave a hard tug on his ears.

"Don'ch'a remember? The Teacher Creature was a fake!"

He tugged and pulled at the Creature's head, but it wouldn't come off.

Hobbes, Galaxoid and Nebular looked closely. Nothing yet.

"Calvin, I think this thing is _real_," Hobbes said nervously.

Suddenly, the Creature roared and grabbed Calvin, hurling him into Hobbes.

"Ya know, Hobbes, I think you're right."

"In fact," Retro said, "you're not alone."

Suddenly, the room was filled with several Teacher Creatures!

"I take it found my Duplicator," Calvin moaned.

When they looked again, they saw that Retro had disappeared somehow.

"What do we do now?" asked Galaxoid.

Calvin looked and saw the Imaginator sitting near by.

"I think Calvin has an idea," said Hobbes. "The question is, however, do we want to know what it is?"


	9. We're Almost Done!

Calvin made a daring jump past the Teacher Creatures. He managed to grab onto the helmet of the Imaginator, and he slammed it on his head. He hit the buttons like mad, turning it on.

Hobbes, Galaxoid and Nebular watched as he was surrounded by the fifteen Creatures.

"CALVIN, GET OUT OF THERE!" Hobbes shouted.

He needn't have worried, because as the Creatures had him surrounded, there was a _KABLAM!_ The Creatures were sent hurtling away.

When the smoke cleared, Calvin was standing there, but he wasn't alone.

Standing beside him were Spaceman Spiff, Stupendous Man, and Tracer Bullet!

"Oh, thank goodness!" Hobbes cried. "Some _actual_ help!"

By now, the Teacher Creatures had regained themselves and were now moving back towards the team.

"Okay, here's the deal!" Calvin shouted. "Hobbes, Stupendous Man and Spiff, you all do some serious Creature Butt-Whoopin'! Tracer, Galaxoid and Nebular, follow me! Break!"

The two teams split up.

Hobbes pounced the first Creature that approached him. He knocked it to the ground and started to kick, bite and scratch.

Stupendous Man flew over the bunch, using stupendous strength to punch like never before.

Spiff was jumping and doing back flips as he fired his atomic blaster at a majority of the Creatures.

However, it seemed that whenever one Creature was taken out, several more would pop up.

Hobbes found this very confusing until he spotted something sitting nearby. It was the Duplicator, and several Teacher Creatures were coming out. Bob was supervising the whole thing.

"WE NEED TO GET THE DUPLICATOR!" he shouted.

Stupendous Man saluted and flew towards the old box, but Bob pulled out a blaster.

Hobbes worked fast and helped by leaning up on his hind legs and pouncing Bob, knocking the blaster from his hand.

Stupendous Man dove down and grabbed the box, shaking out whatever Creatures he could. He dropped it near Hobbes.

"Quick!" he yelled. "Get in!"

Spiff and Stupendous Man dove inside the box, and Hobbes pressed the button. The trademark "boink" was heard, and out tumbled at least fifty Spiffs and Stupendous Men.

The Teacher Creatures all froze in their tracks and gulped.

There was a long pause.

"Get 'em," said Hobbes.

Fifty Spiffs fired fifty atomic blasters, and fifty Stupendous Men punched like mad.

It wasn't long before a whole bunch of Creatures were running back into the Duplicator, and Hobbes hit the _UNDO_ button.

Bob finally came to from his tiger attack. He saw all spacemen and superheroes glaring at him.

"If I run away now, will you let me live?" he asked.

"Fine, go ahead," Hobbes said.

"Thanks," and he left as fast as he could.

They all piled back into the Duplicator, and Hobbes undid it all. The originals walked out.

"Well," said Spiff, "that was fun."

"Right, now let's catch up with the rest," Hobbes decided.

* * *

Meanwhile, Calvin, Galaxoid and Nebular were walking behind Tracer, who was in the middle of searching for something.

"Ah, _ha_!" Tracer finally shouted. "I've found what I was looking for!"

Calvin looked up. "A restroom?"

"No!" He thought again. "Well, that's one. But look over _there_!"

They all looked ahead.

"What is it?" asked Calvin.

"It's one of Retro's transporters for his mind-control pills," said Galaxoid.

"Right," said Tracer. "It has a special machine gun up on top that fires pills at people, and that triggers the mind-control serum. If we can fire off the new pills, it'll reverse it all and turn the world back to normal, for the most part."

Calvin, Galaxoid and Nebular stared at him.

"How did you know that if you've never been here before?" asked Calvin.

"I'm the world's greatest detective," said Tracer. "I can find anything, _and_ I know everything."

"Quick, let's load up," said Nebular.

They started to load up their crate of pills, and just as they opened the hatch, they found more Retro's mind-control army standing there waiting for him.

"I guess he didn't know that one," sneered Galaxoid.

Calvin recognized one of them.

"Uncle Max!" he cried.

A signal was sent through their brains, and the army reached for the four of them.

"Uh oh," said Calvin.

Suddenly, they heard a loud battle cry.

"YAHOOOO!"

They all looked up and saw Hobbes and Spiff were piloting the box straight towards them. They flew it straight into the army, knocking them down like bowling pins.

Uncle Max managed to stand up and glare down at them, his green eyes glowing.

Calvin ripped into the crate and pulled out a pill. "Uncle Max! Catch!" He hurled the pill at Max's head. The pill burst, disrupting the serum, and the green glow in his eyes went out.

Max's vision blurred for a moment, and then he saw Calvin, Hobbes, Galaxoid, Nebular, Spaceman Spiff and Tracer Bullet all looking up at him.

"What's going on?" he mumbled. "Calvin? What's happening?"

"Uncle Max," Calvin said, "you have just recovered from one of Retro's mind-control pills, which were hidden in your most recent food item. We just freed you from it with these pills here that reverse the effects. You are now standing in one of the freighters owned by Retro, who is one of my arch-enemies out to destroy me and Hobbes so that he can take over the world with his imagination."

Max looked down at his nephew in confusion, and just as he was about to dismiss this as nonsense, he noticed a tiger standing on his hind legs, a superhero, a detective, a spaceman, and two aliens.

"Well, it would appear I have no choice but to believe you," he said.

"You know, if you feel the urge to pass out on the floor in shock, feel free," said Hobbes.

"I think I will. Someone get behind me."

Hobbes, Stupendous Man and Nebular managed to catch him and get him into the freighter. Calvin and Spiff carried the crate up into the ship with Galaxoid and Tracer right behind them.

Once the hatch door was shut, Calvin stood on the crate.

"Okay, Galaxoid and Nebular, you two fly the ship. Hobbes, you keep an eye on Uncle Max. Spiff, Tracer and Stupendous Man, help me load the gun that'll fire the pills."

Galaxoid and Nebular scurried to the front of ship.

Hobbes helped Max into one of the cots in a bedroom.

Calvin, Spiff, Tracer and Stupendous Man went up to the top with the crate.

"Where do we set the coordinates?" asked Nebular.

"Set it for our hometown," said Hobbes. "We'll build up our own army and invade the island base!"

"Right!"

Up in the gun hatch, Stupendous Man hovered near the others and held up the crate. Spiff and Tracer had a lot of expertise with loading guns, so they were loading the pills. Calvin was holding the flashlight and pushing the pill trays around.

"Come on! We need to hurry!" he shouted.

"That's the last of them!" said Stupendous Man, taking them all back down.

Hobbes was sitting next to Max.

"So, you're saying tigers have a secret organization in Africa where they are secretly plotting to destroy all the antelope?" he asked.

"Well, that, and we plan to knock off the lions to take our rightful place as kings of the jungle," Hobbes said.

"SPIFF!" Calvin shouted. "Get to the front of the ship and help Galaxoid and Nebular! Stupendous Man, you go to the top of the ship. Take this."

He handed him an atomic blaster.

"What's this for?"

"Use it to destroy anyone that comes after us."

Stupendous Man saluted and ran up the stairs.

"What do I do?" asked Tracer.

"You stay on hand in case of emergency."

Tracer rolled his eyes and went to the back.

Spiff, Galaxoid and Nebular set the course, and the freighter took to the sky.

* * *

An hour later, the freighter loomed over the city. Everyone halted when they noticed they were covered by a shadow.

"We're above the city," said Galaxoid. "What do we do now?"

"We fire at will!" replied Calvin.

Spiff ran up and got in the cockpit of the firing machine.

Down below, one of the imaginary army men was waiting for further instruction when he spotted the freighter.

"Strange," he said. "They're not due for another hour."

Suddenly, a giant gun appeared on top of the ship.

The army man blew a whistle. "Line up for pill giving!" he shouted.

Everyone in the city stopped and got in line.

"They're in formation!" said Nebular.

"We're ready, Spiff!" shouted Hobbes.

Spiff hit some buttons and prepared to fire. He aimed the gun at the head of a citizen and hit _FIRE_.

The gun turned a shade of blue, rather than green, and a blast sent the pill's chemicals towards the person. A sparkling gas covered his head, which was inhaled, and it canceled out the mind-control pill. The green glow in his eyes went out like a light, and he went back to normal.

"What happened?" he asked.

"It's working!" shouted Stupendous Man.

"Keep firing, Spiff!" Calvin yelled.

Spiff turned the gun in all directions, blasting three more. Then he took out three heads with one blast.

Several of the imaginary army men came running up.

"What's happening?" they shouted.

Then Spiff then hit the _RANDOM FIRE _button, sending the gun spinning out of control, blasting Retro's power out of everyone's heads. Rows of people were freed from the pill's effects, including Calvin's parents, Susie, Moe, Miss Wormwood, Rosalyn and Mr. Spittle.

Uncle Max was impressed. "What 'til the guys at the office hear about this!" he laughed.

The leader of the army men reached into his pocket and pulled out a walkie-talkie. "The boy's hijacked a freighter and he's ruining everything! We need backup, now!"

Hobbes gave Spiff a thumbs up, which told Spiff to turn the gun to they sky. There was a huge blast that sent an effect all over the world, and blasted anyone else who was green in the eye out of trouble.

* * *

Bob was running back to the island. For his convenience, a bridge had been put up between the rental shack to the island/command base.

"Retro!" he shouted.

Retro was standing at the highest point of the base and was smiling to himself.

"Retro, he's winning!" Bob yelled.

"What are you talking about?"

"Look!"

Retro looked at the security cameras and his eyes bugged out. He could see the freighter that held Calvin, Hobbes and their new crew.

"What do we do?" Bob asked frantically.

"You stay here and make sure everything works out," said Retro, running down the stairs. "I'll take care of the kid."

He hopped in the claw-car and drove off.

"I'll get you, ya little pest!" he roared over the engine.

He drove the car forward, only to fall into the lake.

"Sooner or later," he mumbled.

He used his claw to reach up onto the bridge and drive a bit more efficiently. He disappeared down the road and towards the town.

* * *

By now, everyone in town had been freed, and the freighter was touching down. Everyone stood near the entrance as the hatch doors fell open.

"Where's Calvin?" Mom asked Dad.

"I dunno. I couldn't find him in the crowd," Dad replied.

Steam poured from the freighter in that trademark way, and out walked someone with a spiky head.

"CALVIN!" everyone shouted.

Then everyone watched as several other figures came from behind Calvin. Hobbes, Galaxoid, Nebular, Spaceman Spiff, Stupendous Man, Tracer Bullet and Uncle Max.

"Max?" asked Dad. "What're you doing here?"

"Man, oh man, bro," Max chuckled, placing a hand on Dad's shoulder. "That's one talented kid you've got there."


	10. Calvin & Hobbes Save the World

Calvin was feeling super proud. He was standing up on the stage, telling everyone about his adventure.

"Do you think he's telling the truth?" asked Dad.

Mom eyed Hobbes, who was standing next to Calvin.

"Oh, I think he might."

"So anyway," Calvin was saying, "I believe you all owe me an apology."

"An apology for what?" Susie shouted.

"For saying that I was an idiot running around claiming that there were kidnappings and an Imaginator and a guy whose name describes his hair!"

No one said anything.

"Oh come on! After all this, and you _still_ don't believe me about Retro?"

"Sorry, Calvin," said Mom, "but we're gonna need better proof than that."

Suddenly, something burst through the stage. It was a metallic claw that Calvin and Hobbes recognized all too much. Calvin was knocked into Mom's arms.

"Guess what? I believe you," she said.

The claw was ripping the stage apart. Hobbes managed to jump out of the way before he was grabbed.

"Spiff! Stupendous Man! Tracer! Do something!" Calvin shouted.

But when everyone looked, they saw that the three imaginary friends were captured in a bag by the imaginary men. They had Galaxoid and Nebular as well.

By now, Retro had ripped through the entire stage, and he was standing in the ruins in front of the car.

"So," he said, "you saved everyone then, eh?"

"You bet we did!" Calvin yelled, jumping to the ground. "We stopped you from taking over the world! All the pills have been destroyed, and we have the Imaginator, so we won! HA!"

Retro chuckled quietly and shook his head, giving Calvin the basic idea that he was wrong.

"You may have ruined one part, but I can make a new Imaginator. I can make more pills. I have the technology, the know-how and the cool car. You may _try_ to stop me, but you know you won't."

Calvin and Hobbes had the nerve to step forward. "Oh, yeah?" Calvin asked.

Before they knew what was happening, they'd been snatched up in the claw and were now in Retro's clutches!

"Yeah," Retro grinned.

Calvin and Hobbes grunted hard, but they couldn't wiggle free.

"HEY!" Dad shouted. "That's our son! Put him down!"

"Of all the times Dad could start caring," Calvin muttered.

During all this, Andy and Sherman were looking at the Imaginator.

"They didn't have anything like _this_ at the University," Sherman was saying. "I can tell ya _that_."

Calvin had an idea. "Sherman, hit the yellow button!" he shouted.

Sherman jumped down for the button. "Sherman to the rescue!" he shouted. However, he missed and hit the pavement.

Andy covered his head in embarrassment and hit the button himself.

All at once, the new feature shot out of the Imaginator. A laser shot toward the claw. It blasted through a cable that was attached to it, and it snapped, hot boiling water pouring out.

The claw suddenly malfunctioned and sprang open. Calvin and Hobbes were tossed through the air, screaming the whole way.

"You humans never think things through," Sherman said to Andy.

Calvin and Hobbes sailed up and then down, straight towards a tree, which they landed safely in. It bent down to the ground from the force of the impact.

"This one isgoing in the GROSS Logbook," Calvin said, taking a branch out of his hair.

"He's not getting a star by _his_ name," Hobbes agreed.

The tree suddenly flew back up again, and sent them flying straight back. They could see things weren't going very well.

Retro was desperately trying to repair the claw, but he found that it was beyond repair.

At that instant, Stupendous Man managed to kick the imaginary army men down, and they tore out of the net.

Stupendous Man flew through the air and managed to catch Calvin and Hobbes.

"He really is stupendous," Hobbes said.

Once they were back on the ground, they all turned to Retro and the army men.

Retro still didn't look worried.

"You don't get it, do you? I have my own Imaginator! I can do whatever I want with it. I'll destroy all of you, and the world will soon be mine!"

"What do we do now?" whispered Galaxoid.

Calvin's mind raced. Inside his head, a bunch of little Calvins were working hard.

"Analyzing the data!" said one.

"What could we possibly do?" asked another.

"I've got it!" said the Head Calvin. "Turn the eyes toward the Imaginator and type in the idea."

They all typed as fast as they could. Several things were flashing by. Sweat poured down their faces.

"Done!" they shouted.

Calvin blinked and grinned at the Imaginator. "You seem to be forgetting, Retro," he said, "that _we_ have an Imaginator, too." He reached over and put the helmet on. He hit the think button and thought.

"What's he doing?" asked Andy.

"I think he's trying to burst a brain cell," replied Sherman.

Before Retro could retaliate, he noticed that steam was starting to cover the ground. It started to build up, and he couldn't see anything.

"What's going on here?" he choked.

Suddenly, the steam all disappeared, and so had Calvin, Hobbes, Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet, Stupendous Man, Galaxoid and Nebular.

Plus, the street looked very different too.

The crowd noticed that there was giant scaffolding above them, and Galaxoid and Nebular were standing on it. They had a giant spotlight that shone down on the stage.

Suddenly, it got very dark.

Retro ran around frantically, trying to find out what was going on.

There was loud murmuring from the crowd until Moe shouted, "It's Twinky!"

Everyone looked at the stage and saw that Calvin was standing on the stage, but everything was different. The stage was rebuilt, and the band was ready. Tracer stood behind an organ, Spiff and Stupendous Man held guitars, and Hobbes sat at a drum set. Calvin was wearing fancy-schmancy sunglasses and holding the microphone.

"What's going on now?" Retro demanded.

Suddenly, in a blast of sound, Calvin jumped up and started to sing over the band.

"I'm gonna build me a ship that can take me far away. Far from this stupid world! Calvin and Hobbes investigate! Just give me a chance to show you all existing love. Love with imperfection and you say that's not love at all. Now we know there's just too many things for you to hold on to. And for all the love your words can bring, I'll have all the loss you surely bring."

As they went into the guitar solo, Calvin started doing a weird dance across the stage. He did the worm, backwards, pumped, jumped, swung and basically got down with his bad self.

Everyone was holding lighters and waving them back and forth.

"I'm gonna have ships and things that can take me out of reality. No fumes and glooms and hostile words. Just give me a chance to show you all existing love. Love with imperfection and you say that's not love at all. Now we know there's just too many things for you to hold on to. And for all the love your words can bring, I'll have all the loss you surely bring."

Stupendous Man broke into a guitar solo again, but this time, Calvin did more than dance. He jumped up into the air and seemed to float upwards. Then he did a nosedive, jumping into his cardboard box, which suddenly flew up into the air. He did a double-backwards-summersault and dove back down to land.

Retro pointed at the army men. "Get him! Now!"

They all pulled out bazookas, but they weren't fast enough, for they didn't know that something mystical was going on.

In a musical blast, Calvin started to fire off his own gun! A blast of yellow came out and blasted the bazookas, causing them to disappear. The energy from them went into the Imaginator!

Then Calvin fired again, striking the army and changing them into the same form of energy, sending them back into the Imaginator!

"NOOOOO!" Retro shrieked.

The guitar got a bit softer as Calvin touched down again.

"I'm gonna build me a ship that can take me far away. Far from this stupid world. Calvin and Hobbes investigate. Just give me a chance to show you all existing love. Love with imperfection and you say that's not love at all."

Then Calvin started aim at the sky.

"No, that's not love at all."

He fired.

"Are you sure it's not love at all?"

They yellow light went all over the world, enveloping the planet in a ball of yellow. Several bursts of energy and electricity crackled and flew back to the Imaginator. All of Retro's destruction was removed from the earth and sent back to where it belonged.

Bob suddenly ran up. "Sir?" he said. "It would appear that we've been foiled."

"Yeah," Calvin laughed. "Just like the baked potatoes you're about to become."

He aimed the gun straight at them.

"Do you feel lucky?" Hobbes teased.

Retro scowled. "You wouldn't dare," he snarled.

"Try me," Calvin said.

Retro was tempted to beat this kid up, but then, Hobbes was by Calvin's side. Then Spiff. Then Stupendous Man and Tracer Bullet. Then Galaxoid, Nebular, Andy and Sherman. Then Mom, Dad, Susie, Uncle Max, Moe, Miss Wormwood, Mr. Spittle and Rosalyn.

Calvin raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

Bob cowered behind Retro and covered his head.

Retro snarled at him. "Just bear in mind that I won't be gone completely. I'll still be alive. I'll just be energy floating in the box. All that energy will be stored in a special compartment that cannot be destroyed along with the rest of the machine. I can guarantee that I'll be back to kill you and rule the world yet again."

And with that, he burst into a maniacal laugh.

"This is getting creepy," said Nebular. "Can we just do away with him?"

Calvin nodded. He aimed and fired, turning Retro into energy, and it was all sent into the Imaginator.

Everyone stood over the machine. It wasn't moving.

"Well?" asked Hobbes.

"Well, what?" asked Calvin.

"What do we do now?"

Calvin grinned and ran back onto the stage. Hobbes followed.

"Okay, everyone!" he shouted. "After that particularly fantastic display, I bet you all have something to say to me!"

Everyone rolled their eyes and said, "You were right, and we were wrong."

"Thank you. Now then, Mom and Dad, I believe you two should apologize to me and Hobbes for getting us into this mess in the first place."

Mom and Dad were baffled. "Excuse me?" Dad demanded.

"If you hadn't of signed me up for that appointment with 'Dr. Griffin' a.k.a., Retro Griffin, we probably wouldn't have been in the mess. In fact, if you hadn't of sent us outside to play last May, we never would have met Retro to begin with!"

Mom stepped forward. "We _do_ apologize for saying you had a deficient mind," she said. "In fact, based on what's just happened, I'd saw we couldn't have been more wrong."

"_Now_ ye're talkin'!" Calvin approved.

"Right," said Dad. "We shouldn't have doubted you. It's just, you're not exactly very trustworthy."

Calvin's face fell.

"But keep in mind that nobody what happens, remember this: we love you."

And they gave Calvin a hug. Calvin squirmed at first, but he shrugged it off and hugged them back.

"Okay, okay, enough of the mushy stuff," said Hobbes. "Let's have some real summer fun, huh?"

"Yeeho!" Max shouted.

"Let's rock!" yelled Spiff.

They all started to jam on the instruments, playing songs well into the night.

For Calvin and Hobbes, it was the end of one adventure, and the beginning of a new one. They agreed that they would get rid of the Imaginator after Spiff, Tracer and Stupendous Man went back into Calvin's head, and to be extra safe, they'd give it to Galaxoid and Nebular, who would take it to the Planet Zok, a planet that was ninety percent lava.

"It's looking to be a great summer, Hobbes," said Calvin.

"Yeah," Hobbes agreed, "and the fun's just getting started!"

**_Epilogue_**

After the party was over and the three imaginary people were sent back into the Imaginator, Galaxoid and Nebular flew through the galaxies until they found the desired destination: Planet Zok.

"Are we ready?" asked Galaxoid.

"Bombs away!" replied Nebular.

They opened a hatch, and the Imaginator fell out. The two aliens flew off.

Planet Zok may be ninety percent lava, but there's a ten percent that isn't, and unfortunately, the Imaginator landed in the ten percent.

Was Retro gone for good, or was there a chance of him returning? Time will tell…


	11. Bonus Chapter!

**Epilogue II**

Due to the fact that several questions were left unanswered, here's the next part of the epilogue.

The gold that Calvin and Hobbes had found was donated to the town to pay for repairs. Calvin didn't want to do it, but Mom threatened to ground him, so he had no choice. The town was repaired and things returned to their normal routine.

Spiff, Tracer and Stupendous Man were returned to their home in Calvin's head, and as for Hobbes, he was reverted back to his usual stuffed toy self, unknown to Calvin, who still sees him as the tiger he is. People nowadays think twice when Calvin blames Hobbes for something.

Dad also made a promise in payment for being rescued: he would never take the family camping again. After that little episode, it had given Calvin's name for the island, "Vacation Spot of Doom", a literal meaning. By making this promise, his polls shot up a whole lot and he's now able to stay in office this year as Dad, according to Calvin.

People now give Calvin a little more respect. Susie no longer refers to Calvin as a little freak, but they continue to hate each other. Moe doesn't beat Calvin up as much. The kids at school don't tease him and make fun of him anymore, and he's also not having any jokes made about special school. Rosalyn is still the only one who will baby-sit him, but she's eased up a little, but not enough for Calvin to still not fear her.

Calvin and Hobbes were given Medals of Honor from the president. Congress at first thought it was silly that they were giving these to a kid and a tiger, but after Calvin sent them a video copy of the concert, they shut up about it.

And in regards of Retro returning, well, who knows? For all we know, maybe Zok is inhabited. Just maybe…

* * *

_**Voice Actors:**_

**_Pamela Segal…_ **Calvin / Spaceman Spiff

**_Ryan Stiles…_** Hobbes / Canoe Guy

**_Megan Cavanaugh…_ **Mom

**_Kurtwood Smith…_ **Dad / Retro

**_Daveigh Chase…_ **Susie

**_Elizabeth Daily…_** Moe

**_Lauren Tom…_** Candace / Rosalyn

**_Bill Murray…_** Stupendous Man / Tracer Bullet

**_Andrew Lawrence… _**Andy

**_Colin Mochrie…_** Galaxoid / Sherman

**_Tom Kenny…_ **Nebular

**_Dee Bradley Baker…_ **Various Voices

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

**_It Must Be Summer:_ Fountains of Wayne: **Opening Theme

**_One Way Ticket: _LeAnn Rimes: **Calvin and Hobbes escape through the window.

**_Writing to Reach You:_ Travis: **Calvin remembers Hobbes

**_Moody Blues: _Mark Joseph: **The box rides through the town.

**_Kids: _Robbie Williams: **Everyone is freed.

**_Calvin & Hobbes:_ Pure Joy: **Calvin's Song

**_Any Evidence? _Mark Joseph: **Sung by the gang right before the credits.

_**Perfect:** _**Maren Ord: **Credits

**_When I Look to the Sky: _Train: **Credits

**_Where My Heart Will Take Me (Theme from "Enterprise"): _James Banbury, Jeff Bova, Jeremy Lubbock, John McCurry, Neil Jason, New York Trek Orchestra, & Russell Watson: **Credits

* * *

_**Trailer for Retro Chill**_

**Narrator: **When an alien king bent on destruction…

**Rupert Chill: **That's just _hilarious_, Potentate.

**Narrator: **…and a strange-looking scientist meet…

**Retro: **It is I! Retro! I HAVE BEEN RELEASED FROM THE FOREVER SLEEP WITHIN THE IMAGINATOR!

**Narrator: **…you can imagine the trouble that's going to be in store for Earth. Especially when the only one who can save them is captured.

**Calvin: **HELP! MURDER! MAYDAY!

**Retro: **We're going to travel to Earth, and we'll sneak up to Calvin's house, beam him up into the ship and leave an evil clone in his place. The clone will destroy the defense systems and we'll move in to take over. In the meantime, we'll destroy the real Calvin.

**Rupert: **Let 'er rip!

_Calvin is beamed up into the ship, asleep._

**Narrator:** Now it's up to Hobbes to save the day.

**Hobbes: **Why is it _I_ have to do all the hard stuff?

**Sherman: **Yeah, _I'm_ more deserving!

**Narrator: **And he'll have to round up a team of rebels to save the world.

_Random shot of Andy, Sherman, Socrates, Galaxoid and Nebular._

**Narrator: **Earth is doomed.

_Shot of the Fanfiction logo comes onto the screen._

**Narrator: **Calvin and Hobbes star in…

_Title appears on screen._

**Narrator: **…Calvin & Hobbes IV: _RETRO CHILL_.

**Dumb Alien: **OH, WHEE!

**Narrator: **Coming to theaters December 25, 2005.

**Hobbes: **You need to have a little more faith in us!

**Calvin: **Let's see, my life rests in the hands, paws and tentacles of a kid, two tigers, two aliens and a smart mouth, know-it-all rodent. Yeah, I have a _lotta_ faith in _you_ guys.

**Socrates: **He's got a point.

**Narrator: **Rated PG. Coming soon.


End file.
